The Supernova Eleven
by Phalanx
Summary: In any other reality, they would have been called the Eleven Supernovas, and each of them would be notorious in their own right. In THIS reality however, they would come together under the same captain, be part of the same crew: The Straw-Hat Pirates. AU
1. The Beginnings of Brilliance

_**The Supernova Eleven**_

_**Summary: In any other reality, they would have been called the Eleven Supernovas, and each of them would be a notorious pirate in their own right. In this reality however, they would come together under the same captain, be part of the same crew, and be known as... The Straw-Hat Pirates.**_

_**

* * *

**_

_**Chapter 1: The Beginnings of Brilliance**_

_**Somewhere in South Blue*:**_

"I bet I could make that cannon ten times more powerful," said the red-headed apprentice, who was dressed in the grease-stained overalls of a mechanic.

"I doubt it," his fellow apprentice, a tall girl with short dark hair, replied. "You'd probably end up blowing yourself up, kid."

"Yes, do stop coming up with such destructive ideas. You're supposed to be learning to make ships, not weapons of mass destruction." The old woman who was the head of the workshop tried to look stern, but the good advice simply slid off like water off a duck's back.

"Why not?" demanded the boy. "Ships should be able to do other things besides carrying people and stuff!"

"Yes, but conducting genocide on a grand scale isn't one of them."

Sensing defeat, the apprentice stalked to his workbench and sulked.

"_Mercy_!" The manager sighed. "How did I end up with such a bloodthirsty kid?"

* * *

_**Elsewhere in the Grand Line: **_

"_Yo-hohoho, Yohohohoo...Bink's sake... ARGH! _I can't take it anymore!" The boy yelled, prancing around the campfire in a frenzy. "It keeps playing over and over in my head and still I don't know the words!"

The old man sighed. "I told you, that's all I remember. It's been almost what... forty years?"

The boy sniffed as he adjusted his glasses. "I bet if I'd been around at that time I'd remember."

"A song that some random group of pirates who stopped here sang decades ago? You are a talented musician of the Long-Arm tribe, boy. No doubt about that. But you give yourself too much credit."

The boy pouted. "Music sure beats trying to make a quick buck off the cultists." Getting no response, the boy started fiddling about with the Tone Dial he always wore around his neck. The Dial had obviously seen a lot of use, for it was cracked in parts. It was quite a wonder that it still worked. A click of the topmost protrusion started it playing.

The tinny sound that came from it somehow managed to convey the grand glory of the full band that had, in the years past, immortalized the rollicking tune. The boy listened, enraptured, but just as it got to the singing part, the damaged dial stopped playing, cutting off the words.

The boy sighed. "And you just had to sell the other good dial to them, Pa."

Pa shook his head. "You're hopelessly obsessed. Though... I wonder if the person who bought it ever managed to make use of it."

"One day, I'll find out." said the boy, dreamily.

Somewhere on a ship in the Florian Triangle, a lonely skeleton sneezed.

* * *

_**Somewhere in the West Blue: **_

The lifeboat drifted aimlessly. The two survivors on board were seemingly more dead than alive.

One was asleep, taking refuge from the cruel sun in the shadow of the second. A wave slapped the little boat roughly and the sleeper stirred.

"There's been no sign of a boat yet," the second survivor whispered through parched lips. "Go back to sleep."

"I'm so hungry... we're all that's left, aren't we?" While adult in appearance, in many ways she was still a child.

"Don't talk. Save your energy."

Her face crumpled. "I should have known... I always bring disaster to everyone around me."

"Don't cry. It's a waste of moisture," There was a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"You should have left me to die alone."

"Listen to me!" The girl found herself forced to look into the other's angry, sunburned face. "Remember what he told you! It's all right to want to live!"

They were dying in a boat, in the middle of the ocean and no hope of rescue.

"It's all right... to want to... live..." the other repeated softly.

* * *

_**High above the Grand Line:**_

"Welcome back, High Priest!"

He was a man of enormous presence, and revered amongst all who lived in Bilka. The Pilgrim High-Priest, he-who-bravely-descended into the Blue Sea below for months and even years at end, all to bring back wondrous marvels and knowledge of other cultures. But even the sturdiest of adventurers appreciate a place to call home, and he was glad to be back in the temple with the memories of his three-year pilgrimage behind him.

The acolytes were busy carrying the fruits of his labour, assorted artifacts and multiple scrolls, all obtained via the trade of the dials that were so valued in the blue sea below.

"It has been too long, Brother Reis." The High-Priest's smile spanned from ear to ear.

"Bilka rejoices at your return. "The head priest of the temple bowed to the larger man. "What is this wondrous object you have here?"

The 'wondrous object' the high-priest was holding was certainly something out of the ordinary. It was small electric-blue oval, about the size of a small chicken egg, with a dense covering of swirling bristle-like hair.

"Some sort of fruit. I found it floating near the shores of one of the islands I visited," The High-Priest said. "It was such an unusual-looking object that I thought it would be worthy to find out what it was."

"Did the Blue-Sea dwellers not know what it was?"

"I suspect they did, for though they did not tell me; they tried very hard to cheat me out of it. But the Heavens do not favour those with deceit in their hearts and I refrained from dealing with them. Unfortunately they did not take my refusals kindly either, and I was required to dispense Heaven's Judgment upon those heathens. With that in mind, I think it would be safer kept in the temple before I make enquiries about it in my future travels."

"Alas, the next trip will be longer, won't it?"

"As we venture deeper and deeper into the Blue Sea, yes."

"It can't be helped, but we are always grateful for your selflessness, High Priest... Ah! Enel!" The temple priest motioned to another acolyte. "Take this artifact to be stored in the temple vaults, will you?"

The young acolyte smiled, his golden hair and perfectly-formed wings giving him the appearance of what the Blue Sea dwellers would call an 'angel.'"

"Certainly, Father."

* * *

_**Another time, in the East Blue: **_

The swordsman downed the last of the sake in one shot.

"I told you before." The earrings on his left ear tinkled as he shook his head. "If I can't be the boss, I'm not interested."

Mr. 7 smiled thinly. "Well, I have to say I'm surprised that such a lucrative offer would be turned down by the one who calls himself 'The Pirate Hunter'..."

"I never gave myself that name," said the East Blue native as he motioned for more alcohol to be brought over. "And I don't see any benefit in joining your company. I'm doing just fine on my own, so why don't you go tell your boss to find someone else?"

"Well, that's a shame..." Mr. 7 began smoothly.

The swordsman recognized the moment when the intent in the air changed.

"... you see, now that you know of our existence, I can't let you..." continued the recruiter.

Mr. 7 did not get any further, for the infamous pirate hunter of the East Blue had already moved. The rapier that Mr. 7 had intended to stab through his opponent's heart was duly trapped in the back of the chair he had been sitting on.

The falling shadow of the Santoryuu master would be the last thing Mr. 7 would ever see.

"You can show yourself too," Said the swordsman to the shadows, after he had finished wiping off his bloodied katana.

"You're quite good," Said the figure hiding in the darkness, unfazed by the fact he had been found out.

"So, are you planning to avenge your friend now?"

"He's not my friend. Just a subordinate. And not a very good one, at that." There was a pause as both parties regarded each other. "As a matter of fact, I'm more interested in making a deal with _you_, Pirate Hunter."

"I've already said..."

"What you really want is a challenge, isn't it?"

The swordsman smiled broadly.

"So how about you try fighting me?" The ring of steel on sheath could be heard. "If I win, you work for me."

"And if you lose...?"

"You become the new boss." The challenger mirrored the swordsman's bloodthirsty smile. "But I won't."

* * *

_**Elsewhere, in the Grand Line:**_

"_Silent as a painted ship upon a painted ocean...*"_

The ship sat patiently still upon the calm sea. It was waiting.

"Captain..." The robed crewman holding the Southbird was squirming nervously. "Are you sure about this? They were all laughing at us at Jaya, perhaps they knew something we don't."

"It will come." The captain spoke with a chilling certainty, as if he had seen it all happen. But the observant first mate, who knew him better than anyone, could tell that even behind the facade the man was slightly perturbed.

For one, he was still muttering to himself.

"The Moon."

He laid out the card depicting the globe nestled between the two towers.

"The Hierophant."

The second card was placed next to the first. Then he drew the next and his brow furrowed, an unusual display of emotion for him.

"Death."

Around the ship, an ominous rumbling could be heard. The sea water began to bubble, as if ready to boil. Calmly, the pirate known as the Magician drew another card from the deck. This time he looked thoughtful.

"Captain...?"

"It is fated. No matter how I try, the sequence of the cards is always the same." The clairvoyant murmured. "The Moon, The Hierophant, Death, and after that..."

The Knock-Up Stream had arrived. Just as the captain had predicted.

"...The Wheel of Fortune."

* * *

_**Somewhere in the West Blue...**_

The shady figure who sat upon the table was counting the stacks of beli that were scattered around its polished surface. He was carefully arranging them into neat stacks, to be transferred into a suitable case later, unlike the now-deflated sack that had previously held those contents.

_Vulgarity in action. _He thought in disapproval. Such disrespect for money, just chucking it higgledy-piggledy into a sack as if it were a pile of waste paper. These young upstarts had absolutely no sense of class or decorum.

Although it had to be admitted that they paid well.

It had been a job well-done. But then, for someone like him, smuggling was child's play.

He did wonder though: why in the world would anyone want to be smuggled into the _East Blue_, of all places?

* * *

_**Deep in the fog of the Florian Triangle...**_

Dr. Hogback was not pleased. He was in the middle of a breakthrough, and the last thing he wanted was yet another interruption by an enraged fanboy.

But the uninvited visitor was having none of it.

"Give. Her. Back!" He snarled as he wreaked havoc upon the lab.

_Oh, one of those._

"It's a corpse you're after? Well... You're going to have to be a bit more specific." He told the intruder, nervously edging away.

The intruder was specific all right. If 'specific' meant 'viciously waving around a pair of honking huge sickles and threatening to cut his head off'.

Undead Fodder #56 and Longleg-spliced-Longarm #2 (those were annoyingly rare) were doing their best to defend their maker, but the agile attacker was making short work of them.

"Absalom is coming." One of Perona's little ghost projections had popped out of the woodwork.

"About time!" said Dr. Hogback in relief, as a decapitated head went flying through the air.

"Not cute at all, but he's very scary, isn't he?"

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I'll inform Moria-sama," The ghost of the girl replied and faded through the wall.

Dr. Hogback smiled. This intruder was going be turn out to be something of a windfall after all.

Moria-sama was going to be _so_ pleased.

* * *

_**Somewhere, in the Grand Line:**_

He lay on the floor of the dungeon, watching the warmth of his breath condense into visible wisps of mist.

For days he heard the screams outside as the pirates ravaged the villages. And he was the captain of the guard, sworn to protect the kingdom... yet he'd never even had the chance to die doing his duty. It would have been preferable to the torment of knowing that people were dying and he'd been prevented from intervening.

Yesterday had been silent. Perhaps they were all dead by now, left to their fates while that coward of a king fled to save his own skin.

It was hopeless, but still he remembered the words of _that man_.

"I will not die here," he told himself firmly.

"Your self-diagnosis seems quite accurate." A voice, vaguely amused, came from beyond the bars of the jail cell. "Shame, I've never dissected a Zoan-type before."

Dalton pulled himself up with some effort. A furry-hatted man stood outside looking in, projecting an aura that was both sinister and yet at the same time, almost benign.

"Who are you?"

"That depends, Mister Bison," The man smiled lazily. "Is the edict that all non-royal doctors in Drum are to be executed still in effect?"

Dalton shook his head. "Now that there is no one to enforce it, no."

"Excellent." The man rubbed his hands in glee. "I'd heard that the doctors of Drum used to be one of the most advanced in the medical field. They must have left some notes... whose castle is this, by the way?"

"Our former king's... it was designed by an architect who studies snowflake patterns in his spare time."

"Don't mind if I use it?"

"Not if you find some way to release me from this jail cell-"

"Deal!" said the man before he'd even finished his sentence.

* * *

_**And meanwhile, in the East Blue:**_

Upon the shores of a quaint little village adorned with windmills, a young boy prepared to set sail.

"_So how many crew members are you going to have, Luffy?" Makino's smile was warm and indulgent. _

"_Well five is good, maybe nine... no ten!" _

"_Why ten?"_

"_I dunno."_

He smiled as the wind whipped through his short, messy black hair and the straw-hat that was his most treasured possession. The oceans of adventure lay ahead, waiting for him.

"_Well with ten crew, and then yourself as captain, that would make it eleven."_

"_Really?" He began counting them on his fingers._

"Time to find some good nakama, and then go to the Grand Line," said Monkey D. Luffy to himself.

"_Eleven..." he grinned. "It's a good number."_

The sea-king known as the Lord of the Coast fell before him easily, because he was strong now. Nothing would stand in the way of his dream. Shanks would be proud.

Exuberantly, he yelled his challenge to the waves:

"_I'M GONNA BE THE NEXT PIRATE KING!"_

_

* * *

_

_**End of Chapter 1**_

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**_

**Footnotes:**

**[1] Somewhere in the South Blue = ** Place the cameo! And yes, I did get permission first ;)

**[2] Silent as a painted ship upon a painted ocean**This line is from the epic poem that is_ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner._

_**Introduction: This Alternate-Universe story is an expansion of my previously completed AU drabble set "In Five Pieces." It is not required to read "In Five Pieces" before reading this fic, but those of you who have, just keep in mind that timelines and events may differ a little from the earlier fic and canon as well. Let's just think of it as an AU of an AU. * dizzy ***_

_**I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who reviewed "In Five Pieces", especially Aoihand (whose challenge gave me the idea in the first place) and Readr (For doing an Indonesian translation of it!). You guys are awesome, and when you're all asking me to expand the idea, how could I say no? So this one's for you.**_

_**Last but not least, my thanks to my wonderful beta, callosum, who took a lot of pains to proofread this opening and who also made many excellent suggestions which helped shaped how this was going. Thank you and you rock!**_


	2. The Sous Chef's Steely Resolve

_**The Supernova Eleven**_

_**Chapter 2: The Sous-Chef's Steely Resolve**_

* * *

It had to be said that in all his years as sous-chef, it was not often that Sanji saw another ship that could be mistaken for the _Baratie_ when in the presence of the real thing.

And yet it had happened, and Sanji couldn't really blame anyone for thinking it.

The ship that was anchored off the famous East Blue restaurant was bizarre, to say the least. And given that the _Baratie_ itself was shaped none too elegantly like a giant fish, that was saying something. Still, your average pirate did not sail in a ship that looked like it was made of layers of cake and candy, complete with frosting and sails that strongly reminded one of liquorice and marzipan.

The owner of the ship was currently ensconced comfortably in the _Baratie's_ vast dining room, surrounded by an ever-growing wall of empty plates and crockery. Sanji sighed in contentment. _She_ might have bizarre tastes in ship decoration, but such a vision of loveliness that she was, if she deemed it suitable for her, it suited him just fine also.

This fascinating girl with her pink locks of hair, delicate as the sakura's blush in spring...

"Er... Miss... you have some meatballs stuck in your hair..." Patty was trying to point out. "I'll just rem-"

...her melodious voice, like the song of the nightingale...

"DON'T TOUCH MY FOOD!"

...and her pale skin, unblemished and perfect...

"Hey! You're splattering ketchup all over our table!" A man from the table next to her was protesting furiously. "And you're covered with it, you uncouth pi-"

The resounding crash of shoe meeting face sent owner of said face flying out of the restaurant.

"Is that any way to talk to a lady?" Sanji called after him. Damn unmannered gluttons, always thinking that the world revolved around them. But his irritation instantly evaporated at the sound of her seductive siren call:

"GET ME MORE PASTA!"

"Right away, Bonney-chwan!" Hearts in his eyes, the cook skipped his way into the kitchen happily, determined to prepare that dish himself. A woman after his own heart... could it be fate?

"Oi! Sanji!"

Due to the furious demand for food from the dining room, the cooks of the Baratie were being put through their paces. Normally they loved a challenge, but the distressed expression on that particular cook's face did not bode well. Motioning the sous-chef over, a whispered conversation was had and one could almost see the colour draining from Sanji's face. It was unprecedented. Impossible. Unthinkable...

**_"We're running out of food?"_**

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Sanji was waving goodbye to the girl of his dreams. He was feeling a bit dazed.

"It's a shame you guys didn't stock enough food today, but your food is so good I'll overlook it for time being," the resplendent Bonney-chwan had said. "I'll be back tomorrow... but you gotta give me that recipe for your seafood linguine!"

_She was a cook too! She was... perfect._

Patty had none-too-subtly coughed something about payment.

Sanji had kicked him in the teeth for that. "Of course, my discerning lady. Don't worry about your bill, you can settle it tomorrow when you come back and I'll have this lovely selection of recipes from my private collection ready _just for you_."

She had been most pleased about that.

Zeff on the other hand, had not been. It was a solid hour of lecturing about letting... no, _encouraging_ pirates to eat and run ("_BONNEY-CHWAN DID NOT EAT-AND-RUN!-*oof!*"_) punctuated by kicks before Sanji found himself free and smoking outside the galley again.

* * *

In the galley itself, the other cooks were complaining about Sanji and his recent string of outrageous doings. It was bad enough there was that earlier incident last week with the beating-up of that marine lieutenant (He had come here with his date only to lose her to a flirting Sanji, and then lost to the cook when they fought over her). And then that smoking Casanova-wannabe (Sanji, not the marine lieutenant) had insisted on feeding that escaped prisoner from the said marine lieutenant's ship after being explicitly warned not to... and now there was _this_.

Fortunately the _Baratie_ had enough of a reserve that they could afford to restock without payment once or twice, but that Bonney woman had better pay up the next time she showed or they would be in big trouble.

At least as a consolation, the sous-chef was surely sabotaging his own chances of becoming the head chef of the _Baratie_ in the future.

"Hey you guys!" Speak of the devil, the bloody cook's voice was floating in from the outside. "Why is there a barrel of supplies in the water? Are you idiots wasting food now?"

Patty and Carne exchanged puzzled glances. Food supplies in the water? That didn't sound right.

"What is he talking about?"

"Us? Waste food? As if!"

The cooks made their way outside just in time to see Sanji fishing out the aforementioned barrel. He was peering closely at the markings on its side. "Hang on, it doesn't seem to be one of ours. What is it doing..."

And that was when the barrel exploded.

When the shower of wood splinters had subsided, the cooks of the _Baratie_ found themselves looking at an extraordinary sight: a young boy in a straw hat. Which was not the extraordinary part. In fact, there were many other things worth mentioning about him that could be deemed 'extraordinary'. But none of them as prominent as the fact that his arms were extended – no, they were stretching at ungodly lengths -and they had managed to punch through the upper decks of the ship, including Chef Zeff's cabin.

"Uh whoops," said the boy, sounding as though this was a common occurrence for him. "Was that my fault?"

* * *

_**Several Days Ago...**_

The pirate named Gin winced as he sailed his recently procured caravel away from the shores of the sleepy little village. The cuts he had received still hadn't stopped bleeding.

_He hadn't meant to kill that man._

No, after the act of kindness he had experienced from that Sanji-san, he'd truly meant to hold back and just get away with minimal bloodshed. But that had been the only sea-worthy ship on that island and that fool had refused to just let him take it and leave. And then he had proven to be so unexpectedly dangerous that Gin hadn't been able to beat him without killing him; a lucky crushing blow to the skull had been his only recourse.

It couldn't be helped. He had to get back to Don Krieg.

Funny... Gin couldn't help feeling he had seen that man's face somewhere else before.

* * *

Back in Syrup Village, a boy named Usopp and a manservant named Merry were trying their best to comfort Kaya, the former owner of the same caravel.

"Why didn't he ask for help?" wondered Merry. "He must have just tried to fight off that pirate all on his own."

"Oh, Kurahadol!" Kaya was sobbing.

"I feel bad about the things I said about him now." Usopp shifted guiltily. "He was a good guy after all."

"I wish he had just let him take the _Merry_. It wasn't worth his life! It wasn't!"

The manservant could only nod in agreement, but the storyteller took a different approach of comforting the grieving girl.

"Let me tell you the tale of Kurahadol: a brave but misunderstood butler who worked for a beautiful princess..." began Usopp. As adept as he was at lying, one could still notice the lack of enthusiasm in his voice at the amount of praise he was heaping posthumously on his former nemesis. But it worked. Kaya's sobbing slowed, and she asked for him to continue.

"...then one day, an evil bandit came to the kingdom and tried to kidnap the princess and steal her away in her own ship. But the brave butler wouldn't let him! For he was secretly a retired swordsman, and the princess' parents had made him promise to always protect her... and he did! Even though he had not fought in years, his hands did not forget his skill- he fought the infamous bandit to a standstill and drove him off!"

That the butler was actually a diabolical pirate captain in hiding, and that the only reason he had tried to silence the Don Krieg pirate was to prevent undue attention from the marines from fouling up his plans, was never made known. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

"...when it was over, and the princess was safe, but the heroic butler collapsed and died from his wounds. But with his death, he inspired a new generation of heroes from the youths of the kingdom. And one of them, the Great Bandit Hunter Usopp, swore that his bravery would never be forgotten."

"Does he go after the bandit in the end?"

"Yes, he disguised himself as a wandering bard, and tracked down the bandit responsible."

Kaya wiped her tears away, and while she did not smile, she did stop crying as a new resolve overcame her. "With the princess who had become a great healer at his side, of course."

Usopp nodded. "And together, they defeated him and avenged the heroic butler!"

And so, life went on.

Sadly, Usopp never spoke of wanting to become a pirate or a warrior of the sea again. Instead he talked of traveling, and becoming a collector of tales and a writer of books. He also started collecting wanted posters, but no one from the village took serious notice of that.

Kurahadol was promptly buried and mourned as a hero, and the residents of Syrup village were never to know how close their fates had flirted with disaster, and how a pirate named Gin had inadvertently saved all their lives.

* * *

"So you're saying that you set sail from Fuusha Village to become the Pirate King, and the boat that you were in got sucked into a whirlpool, and you sealed yourself into the barrel to avoid being drowned?" Zeff looked as skeptical as an old wizened man who, despite wearing an exaggeratedly long hat, could only look.

The boy with the straw-hat nodded. "Yep!"

Shaking his head, Zeff wondered how the kid was still alive. By all rights that should not have worked. In fact, how he'd managed to float all the way out here... no, he'd hadn't experienced such wackiness since the Grand Line and even then there had been a kind of warped logic to the madness of that place. This kid however... was just plain madness. He made logic warp around _him. _

"Well, you'll have to pay for the damages to my ship," he said at last.

The boy looked at him. "But I don't have any money yet. But I will when I become the Pirate King. Can I just write you an I.O.U. for later?"

The chefs of the _Baratie_ would comment later that it was at that point when Zeff worsened the damaged done to the restaurant ship earlier by kicking the strange, seemingly indestructible rubber boy through the roof.

* * *

Sanji couldn't comprehend what Zeff was thinking when he made that boy - what was his name again? Right, _Luffy -_ the busboy for the Baratie. Granted, the little lug had proven to be penniless and throughly incapable of paying back the damages incurred to the Baratie, but at the rate he was going, eating food meant for customers and wrecking dish after dish, they would be stuck with him _forever_.

He definitely did not want that squirt serving any of the food he'd prepared for Bonney-chwan when she came by later today. It wouldn't survive the trip to the table, he was sure.

_Bonney-__c__hwan! _The chef gave an excited wiggle. The love of his life couldn't show up soon enough. Any moment now, she was going to walk through that door, and grace them with her wondrous presence...

Right on cue, someone burst through the door.

The momentary rush of joy at thinking it was Bonney quickly ebbed when Sanji realized it wasn't the lovely beauty he was expecting, but someone else entirely.

Gin stood in the doorway, bracing another man who looked on the verge of death. Even as Sanji's eyes took in the detail of the pale hair, heavyset frame and armor-plated torso, a murmur ran around the room. The restaurant patrons recognized that man too.

"It's Don Krieg the pirate!"

"What happened to him?"

The man was starving. Sanji knew it without even having to consciously think about it. The man had been starved to the brink of death. The dead, desperate look in his eyes gave it away.

"Please Sanji-san..." Words were superfluous here. Everyone knew what Gin wanted to ask of the chef. And everyone knew that it was a request better not granted.

Every sane bone in his body was telling him to say no. He didn't owe Gin anything. If anything, it was the other way around. The tales of Don Krieg's ruthlessness were well-known. And Sanji did not trust Don Krieg's assurances that he was not going to cause any trouble one bit.

But right now, a man before him was starving.

* * *

_Over eighty days without food. Eighty days. That was three months, almost._

"_The sea can be such a cruel place. If we ever get off this rock, I'm going to open a restaurant ship."_

"_And we'll feed everyone, as long as they are hungry."_

_

* * *

_

He regretted nothing.

He knew the outcome even before it happened. But the foreknowledge was irrelevant. As someone else he would have known (and hated) in another reality would have said: "A real man keeps his word."

Of course, in this reality he didn't know that someone else, and he didn't know how horrified he would be to be actually agreeing with that person, but fortunately, this was not so much an issue at the present.

Still no regrets. Not even when Don Krieg reneged on his word, and revealed his intent to take the _Baratie_, and when the other chefs accused him of bringing ruin upon them, still he stayed resolute.

"_If any of you want to live, you'd better be gone by the time I get back."_

A promise was a promise, but he was under no obligation to be a doormat to an ingrate of a pirate who stole food. Feeding a starving man was one thing, but if it came down to protecting the Baratie, he was going to fight to the death.

It had only gotten worse when Don Krieg realised that the head-chef of the _Baratie_ had once been the famous pirate Red-Leg Zeff, and that his captain's log would contain valuable data about the Grand Line. Of course the man's greedy, grasping mind meant that he expected this to be handed over to him as well.

"_...took everything from him. His dreams, his crew, his leg..."_

No regrets. Not now, not two hours later when the fighting chefs of the Baratie braced themselves for the onslaught by the Don Krieg pirates.

Maybe he shouldn't have tempted fate.

"_Sanjiii-kun!"_

A small ship had appeared from the south. A ship that looked like a decorated cake, with a cheery girl possessing hair the colour of the dawn's blush standing one its bridge.

Bonney had finally arrived. At the worst moment possible.

Sanji had thought then that the situation couldn't have gotten any worse. But as it turned out, he was wrong.

* * *

Bonney had been looking forward to another session at the _Baratie_ again. After all, it had been a long time since she had been able to eat to her heart's content at such a place without people looking askance at her.

The _Chocolat Gateau_ was not a large ship, which was a good thing, because otherwise it would have been a royal pain to sail all by her lonesome.

It also helped that the ship's ludicrous appearance made pirates give it a wide berth. There was a limit to how opportunistic a pirate could be, and Bonney had discovered a long time ago that most pirates, despite their pragmatism, had a reluctance to take a ship that looked like a frosted layer cake, probably due to manly pride. This she used to her advantage (not that she really needed it against most of the sad excuses of pirates one found in the East Blue) but it was nice not to have to be constantly fending off attackers especially when she secretly had this much treasure on board.

True, she had parted with a rather significant portion of it to be smuggled out of _that place_, but it had been worth it to throw them off her trail. They'd never find her in the East Blue. And maybe, just maybe, she could finally settle down for a little while in relative peace and just... live.

For a moment, the spectre of a memory leapt up, but she forced it down determinedly. All that was over. She was going to have a new life and now she had the means to do it.

Sanji from the _Baratie_ was so nice, she mused. She looked forward to seeing him again. She was glad that business appeared to be good for the _Baratie_, since there was that huge galleon in front of the restaurant-ship. But she was sure he had saved a table for her. Hopefully the food stocks were up to standard this time around...

* * *

Never take anything for granted, or you become complacent and lose your advantage. That was how he had suffered his first defeat so many years ago.

_A quiet but prosperous little village. Such an easy target._

Never underestimate anything, no matter how ridiculous it looks.

_A wannabe hero wielding a sword. Against him and his hundred men? Preposterous!_

He'd learned that the hard way.

_It was impossible. They were defeated by a single sword-wielding villager and he'd escaped only by pretending to be dead._

He'd taken steps, damnit. The humiliation of that first defeat had led him into recruiting more and more men, employing more and more ruthless tactics. Perhaps a hundred men could still be defeated by a skilled swordsman, but five thousand should- no, they could not possibly lose. Not with the advantage of surprise, deception and every other conceivable tactical approach he could think of. And yet...

_The entire armada, sunk within seven days of entering the Grand Line. All by a single swordsman in a tiny boat._

He was Don Krieg, the greatest pirate of the East Blue. Why was it that his ambitions could be foiled by a single swordsman not just once, but _twice?_

He would take no chances this time. Any unforeseen factor was to be eradicated.

There would be no third time. He gave the order that the ship that had newly arrived (and which could potentially bolster the forces of the _Baratie)_ was to be sunk by a well-placed barrage of cannonballs.

* * *

They realized Don Krieg's intention a moment before he carried it out, and by then it was too late.

"BONNEY!" Sanji screamed over the sound of splintering wood and twisting iron as the cannonballs tore into the hull of the blindsided ship. **_"GOD DAMN YOU SHITTY PIECES OF PIRATE TRASH TO HELL!"_**

"Wait... she managed to jump off, but I don't think she can swim!" called out one of the chefs. True enough, the girl was thrashing in the water, desperately reaching out for a piece of wreckage to cling to.

That was all Sanji needed to hear. In a heartbeat he had left Zeff's side and plunged into the water, racing to rescue the drowning girl. He wasn't quite fast enough, and she sank down before he could reach her. Over the waves they could hear his frenzied swearing. In the distance, they could all see him take a few deep breaths, then dive into the depths after her.

That was all the opening the Don Krieg pirates needed. They charged, and for a while, a full-scale battle raged over the restaurant-ship.

They might have relied too much on numbers, but there was no denying these pirates were strong. Even the sea-chefs of the Baratie, who were used to fighting and brawling, had been no match for their bloodlust.

All save Red-Leg Zeff. He might be a crippled old man, but it should not be forgotten that once he was a famous pirate with a kick like no other, and even if he was past his prime, the Grand Line veteran was still in a different league from the rest of the pirates. Alone he held the line against the invaders.

**_"YOU SHITTY BASTARDS! HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO A LADY!"_**

Sanji had surfaced again, with the unconscious girl in his arms. He also had a nosebleed that didn't appear to have come from fighting, but no one commented on that, maybe because most of the _Baratie_'s staff were laid out in varying states of defeat on the porch. The sous-chef of the _Baratie _took in the devastation, and his face, already furious, turned a deadly shade of black.

"Oi Busboy! Take care of her for me!" said Sanji, handing Bonney's limp form over to the boy Luffy, who up to then, had been firmly told to stay out of the way (and therefore, still hadn't gotten involved in the fight despite his protestations that he was strong and his punch was as powerful as a pistol shot). Bonney would be safest with him, Sanji decided.

"Eh? What's going on? Where are you going?"

"My dear sweet Bonney-chwan," said Sanji, ignoring the boy, "Please excuse me for a moment, for your fair prince must go now and..." - at this he turned and glared at the pirates - "...KICK SOME SHITTY PIRATE ASS."

It was then when the pirates discovered that much to their horror, that Red-Leg Zeff was not the only man on board who knew how to kick, and that Sanji had in fact, secretly been his protege. Now that the gloves had come off, none of the pirates, not even the sub-commander Pearl (a huge man with really no awareness of how ridiculous he looked wearing what looked like a giant dinner plate on his chest, a crock-pot on his head, and two more pot-cover like things in his hands), really stood a chance against them.

Save for two. One of them was Don Krieg. And the other was Gin.

"What are you lot doing?" Don Krieg was shouting. "Can't the lot of you take care of an old cripple and a foul-mouthed chef?"

"Just hang tight, Krieg-Kuso*!" the foul-mouthed chef said in reply. "I'll be coming for you next!"

It was hard to say if the threat shook Don Krieg, but it had to be noted that it was at this point that Krieg stepped up and looked about to join the fight himself. And it was clear from his stance and action that his intended target was Sanji. This did not go unnoticed by Gin.

Sanji was in the middle of kicking Pearl a new face and did not notice that the apologizing Gin had finally decided to kick off his mortification and apathy. With a speed that took one's breath away, he had whipped out a pair of tong-fa, smashed Zeff's peg-leg, and knocked the old man down. All in the span of time it took Sanji to make one of his whirlwind kicks. Coldly pointing a loaded flintlock pistol at the chef's head completed the betrayal.

Everyone froze.

Once again, words were superfluous.

* * *

_Barely alive, her awareness was nothing but a little speck floating in the darkness..._

"...just stand down! He'll kill you if you don't. Just give in and leave with your life!"

"Oi!" Someone was prodding her. "Are you awake?"

"...all your fault, if you would only just hand it over..."

Bonney sat up in shock, neatly headbutting the round-faced boy who was hovering above her.

"Ow!"

"Don't waste your time with warnings, Gin! Pearl, kill him!"

"Oh no..." The memory of what had happened moments before returned. The _Chocolat Gateau_ was gone, destroyed and sunk before she even knew what was going on. "Oh no no no..."

_"They opened fired on us without warning. Everyone is gone. They are dead. They are all dead..."_

She shook her head to clear it of the voice, forcing down the cold prickling of an old familiar fear. "Who are you? Did you save me just now?"

"Eh, me? No." said the odd little boy, whose most predominant feature after his ear-to-ear grin was the straw hat perched on his head. "That was the cook over there - Eh? What happened? He was winning the fight just now."

_Cook?_

_"SANJI-KUN!"_

It was beginning to sink in. While she had been out cold, there had been a war raging. The wounded were strewn across the extended deck of the _Baratie_, and towering over an extremely beat-up man that she could barely recognise as the _Baratie_'s sous-chef, was a man sandwiched in some kind of silly looking armor. He was savagely whaling away at Sanji-kun, who for some reason was just standing there and taking it. It didn't look like he would be able to take it much longer.

His assailant didn't appear to think so either. "I'll finish him off all right, Captain Krieg!"

And then he raised his arm for the final blow...

* * *

Sanji braced himself to be killed by Pearl's finishing move. But instead of the discs crushing his skull, nothing happened.

This was because out of nowhere, the busboy had stretched his arm with his bizarre ability, and stopped the blow. There was a smouldering look in the previously vacant-looking expression that made Sanji wonder if this was even still the same person as before.

"You're stronger than him. Why aren't you dodging?" the busboy demanded.

"Shitty busboy. Can't you see that he's got a gun to Zeff's head?"

The boy turned and fixed Gin a stare.

"He won't fire it."

"What are you talking about?" the pirate snapped back at him. "Of course I will!"

The boy only shook his head. "I heard the other chefs talking about you earlier. Sanji saved your life when you were starving."

"What is that supposed to be mean?"

This was met with a wide grin. "You were grateful to him."

Gin only blinked and looked blankly at the absurd boy. "I am the first commander of the Don Krieg pirates, do you honestly think I wouldn't hesitate to kill a hostage?"

"No, because you're not a bad person."

"Busboy, what do you think you're doing? SHUT UP!" Sanji hissed urgently.

There was only a chuckle from Zeff.

"You think this is funny? YOU THINK THE DON KRIEG PIRATES ARE NOT SERIOUS?" Don Krieg, perched on the figurehead of his flagship, was growing impatient and furious.

"Don Krieg-"

"Gin, enough talking, just kill him!" Don Krieg demanded.

He could see Gin's hand shaking, as the pirate gathered up his resolve.

"KILL HIM!"

A shot rang out. And then another.

* * *

Everyone watching the fight was filled with confusion.

"Now that was futile." Don Krieg looked singularly disgusted and unimpressed. "I'm curious, Gin... what did you hope to accomplish by attempting to shoot _me?_"

The shot had simply deflected off the giant man's armor. But even though no physical damage had been done to Don Krieg himself, that same could not be said for Pearl, who, being at closer range, had been hit where his armour did not cover.

"Damn... you Gin...you dirty traitor..." Pearl gasped as he crumpled to the floor.

"I'm sorry, Don Krieg, but I cannot let you kill this man."

"Gin!" Sanji was stunned.

"You disappoint me, Gin."

"I don't care anymore." There was a slightly deranged look on the pirate commander's face. "But Sanji-san showed me... no, he showed us _both_ kindness... the first since I was born. I cannot let you kill him."

"If you care so much about some foolish cook, then you can share his fate!" Turning to the assembled pirates, he shouted: "Listen up! The first man who brings me the head of that traitor, I will award the post of the new first commander of the future Pirate King!"

Two things happened at that point.

One: the busboy let out a roar of rage and launched himself across the expanse of water between Don Krieg's ship and the _Baratie_. Using his rubber arms as some sort of self-propelled slingshot, he punched Don Krieg in the face with his own body as the metaphorical 'fist'.

Two: the crowd of pirates, egged on by the prospect of becoming the new commander of the Don Krieg pirates, charged forward, only to be reduced into a mass of snot-nosed, crying babies.

Sanji's cigarette fell out of his mouth and clattered to the floor, self-extinguishing in a puddle with a soft hiss. "What the hell just happened?"

"Devil fruit users," Zeff, who was gingerly sitting up, muttered. "What are the odds? Both of them are devil fruit users."

"Both?" Then he realized the truth. "_Bonney_?"

"Sanji-kun, sorry I couldn't tell you about it, but thanks for saving me back there." (To this Sanji nearly swooned with happiness). "It sucks for everyone involved, but everything I owned was on my ship, and I can't pay you back now." (Here she turned to Zeff) "But old man, if I get rid of Don Krieg, count my debt settled, ok?"

"You'll have to beat the busboy to it," Zeff replied, jerking a thumb at the direction of Don Krieg's ship, where both combatants were facing off.

* * *

"Stupid boy." Don Krieg was holding his face where Luffy had left a wonderful knuckle-shaped impression. "You're getting involved now? What is it with you people, fighting over a stupid restaurant?"

"I didn't hit you because of that." Luffy informed him gravely.

Don Krieg glared. "Then why did you?"

The busboy raised his voice. "Because you said you were going to be the Pirate King, and I'm going to be the Pirate King, not you. I will not surrender that title to anyone else!"

Don Krieg stared at the absurd-looking boy and his equally absurd proclamation, and burst out laughing. "You overestimate yourself. Just because you ate a devil fruit doesn't mean that you have the advantage. In fact, I'd say you're at a disadvantage, Boy Who Cannot Swim."

"It doesn't matter if I can swim or not," the busboy said, "Because I'm gonna kick your butt!"

"Dream on, Boy Who-"

He was cut off mid-sentence because at this, the boy made a very credible attempt to add another set of knuckle imprints onto Don Krieg's face. The pirate captain, being on guard this time, managed to defend himself with a cloak of spikes- which the busboy unhesitatingly punched through. Don Krieg went skittering across the deck as the boy usurped his place on the figurehead, his hands dripping with blood.

Sanji stared at the boy in disbelief. Not for the first time.

"My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be the Pirate King!" The busboy informed the pirate captain, his expression still uncharacteristically serious.

That boy was ridiculous. Oblivious. Foolhardy.

Damnit to hell. The boy reminded him of someone else.

_I'm not going to be killed by you filthy pirates. I'm going to find the All Blue!_

For a fleeting moment, Sanji saw the ghost of a little boy who had faced off an infamous pirate of the Grand Line for the sake of a dream...

"Monkey D. Luffy?" Don Krieg had recovered and was rising to his feet again. "I'll remember that..." With this he raised his shield and aimed its face at the busboy. "...SO I CAN CARVE IT INTO YOUR TOMBSTONE!"

* * *

Gin realised that Don Krieg meant to do. "MH-5! Boy, watch out!"

"A poison gas weapon?" Bonney said, her eyes widening. "He's going to gas everyone here!"

Sanji barely had a moment to wonder how and why she had knowledge of such things, before he was distracted by her loveliness as she turned to him and Gin.

"I need to get in range and stop him! Throw me across to that ship!"

"What?"

"I said freaking throw me!"

Gin and Sanji both exchanged glances. And then they nodded.

* * *

Five seconds later, a swearing but determined pink streak was hurtling across the expanse of water between the _Baratie_ and Don Krieg's ship.

Luffy, not understanding what Don Krieg intended to do with the MH-5 shield, was preparing to charge in again, and the only reason that he had not been gassed was because Don Krieg had been taking a moment to put on his own protective gas mask. It was all the time Bonney needed to close the distance get in striking range.

One moment, Don Krieg was a huge hulk of a man, with bulging muscles and clad in heavy, shiny armor. The next, he was a shrivelled old man, collapsing from the weight of his own arsenal, his arms so weakened from rheumatism that he could not even hold the shield aloft.

Bonney, who was still flying through the air, might have crashed into the mast, but fortunately Luffy had seen her trajectory and managed to catch her, breaking her fall.

"Cool! I didn't know you could do that," commented the boy.

"Looks who's talking, rubber-boy. Now finish him off before the effect wears off."

* * *

"She did it!"

"I think I'm in love!" Sanji swooned.

"I doubt the effects of that devil fruit would be permanent. And if they aren't, that won't be enough to stop Don Krieg," said Gin grimly.

"Then I'm going over there myself to make sure this ends here!" Sanji declared.

"There's no need for such drastic measures," a voice interrupted them. Everyone turned around to look at Zeff, who was calmly watching the proceedings.

"What do you mean?"

"Did you not notice the new arrival?"

Unnoticed by the crew of the _Baratie_ and Krieg's ship, a small coffin-shaped boat with black sails had sailed onto the scene. Sitting regally in the middle, illuminated by eerie green candles and bearing a massive cross-handled sword on his back, was a man.

He was dangerous. There was no doubt of that. But in case there had been any, Don Krieg's ship suddenly being cut in half easily put them to rest.

"He cut that huge ship... in a single-stroke?" Sanji breathed. Then he noticed Gin was shaking. "What's wrong?"

"It's him. That man we ran into in the Grand Line... he sunk all our ships."

"His crew...?"

"No! Just him! Alone."

"That man does not need a crew." Zeff said, his arms crossed. "That man is Hawk-Eyes Mihawk, the greatest swordsman in the world. It was Don Krieg's misfortune to run into him."

* * *

"You want me to WHAT?"

"Turn him back to his normal age. It feels weird beating up an old man."

"He's not an old man! He just looks like it because I turned him that way."

"Yeah, but it doesn't feel right."

Bonney sighed in exasperation. "Who cares? You know he's not an old man, he knows he's not an old man, we all know he's not, and he deserves it for what he did to my ship and what he's trying to do to the _Baratie!_"

The busboy's - Luffy's - response was to give her a pleading look with a pair of very huge puppy-dog eyes. Bonney sighed again. "Fine. Fine. Have it your way, rubber-brain. But if you don't manage to beat him, I'm turning him into a baby and tossing him overboard, okay?"

"You won't need to!" vowed Luffy with glee as Bonney reversed her devil-fruit effect on Don Krieg.

"You stinking witch! I'm going to kill you first!" Don Krieg had never been so humiliated before.

"Luffy..."

"Gomu gomu..."

Abruptly, the ship split in half. Bonney shrieked and grabbed on to Luffy as the two halves of the ship tilted and began sinking into the ocean.

"I didn't do it!" said Luffy, in the tone of a boy who had been caught in some sort of mischief.

"Forget it rubber-boy, we need to get off this wreck! It's sinkiinngGAAAAHHH!"

She didn't really need to say anything else, as Luffy had already grabbed the railings on either side of the ship, catapulting them off Don Krieg's doomed ship and back to the safety of the _Baratie._

Behind them, an angry scream cut through the air: "YOU!"

Don Krieg had noticed and recognized the boat that had arrived. And his rage at the rubber-boy and the age-manipulating girl was nothing, absolutely nothing, compared to the hatred he had for the man who had sunk his dreams into the depths of the Grand Line.

"I WILL KILL YOU ALL!"

The man simply gazed back at him with wry amusement.

* * *

There is a saying of the Wano kingdom that goes like this: "Never tickle a sleeping dragon"*. It is wise advice, and the failure of Don Kreig's armada to substitute the words "tickle" and "dragon" with "disturb" and "shichibukai" led to its destruction and their subsequent fleeing from the Grand Line.

But now that the aforesaid "dragon" had been disturbed, Don Krieg proceeded to do something even more unwise. He attempted to pick a fight with it.

Perhaps it was due to his military might being shown up by a ragtag bunch of chefs, a pink-haired girl (how could you take being defeated by someone with pink hair seriously?) and an unarmed rubber-boy. After all, the man had spent an ungodly amount of effort and resources into building up his arsenal, from his advanced weaponry to the impenetrable steel armor.

Sadly, none of it would help him against a single man with a sword. Again. Hawk-Eye Mihawk lazily deflected Don Krieg's missile barrage with a flick of his Black Sword, and with the backstroke of the same motion, effortlessly bisected the giant man, armour and all.

At least Don Krieg was right about one thing. There would be no third time.

* * *

There was an awful silence amongst the participants of the battle for the _Baratie_, when Don Krieg, so alive one moment ago, fell to the deck in a lifeless mass of flesh and cloven armour.

The majority of those present were not innocent of bloodshed, it was true, but for someone so strong to be so utterly destroyed with so little effort was mind-shatteringly unfathomable.

For a moment there was no sound but the lapping of water against hull and flotsam as the man, having dispatched the pirate admiral, turned and fixed his piercing gaze upon the motley bunch assembled on the _Baratie._

"I was hoping for something that could have held my interest," said he at last. Shell-shocked stares were his only replies. Finally one man broke the silence and stepped forward.

"Let me handle this," said Zeff to the gathered chefs and pirates. The head-chef of the _Baratie_ then turned and greeted the warlord. "What brings you to the East Blue, Hawk-Eyes? Did that obtuse bunch disturb your nap or were you simply looking for a challenge?"

"It's been a while, Red-Leg," was the warlord's reply. "To be honest the Grand Line has been lacking in entertainment recently, but don't bother challenging me to a fight. You're not a swordsman, and even if you were, the distinct lack of one of your famed red legs means I have no interest in fighting you."

"I see. Normally I would suggest that you try a meal at my restaurant, but as it turns out, we seem to be experiencing some kitchen troubles at the moment."

If Hawk-Eyes regretted the loss of that opportunity, he certainly didn't show it. "As it happens, that was not on my itinerary. However, I must express that my curiosity has been piqued by seeing another face I recognise out here."

Puzzlement flitted across Zeff's face only for a moment. Then everyone's gaze followed Hawk-Eyes', to rest upon an ashen-faced Bonney, who was doing her best to hide behind Luffy and Sanji.

"I'm curious, girl. How did you manage to get all the way from _there_ into the East Blue undetected?"

The normally-brash girl's demeanour had given way to terrified silence.

This proved too much for Sanji to take. "HEY YOU!" yelled the sous-chef. "Don't keep on bullying her -" He was silenced with a I-told-you-I'll-handle-it-stupid-eggplant glare from Zeff.

"That girl is a customer of my restaurant, Hawk-Eyes. As a professional courtesy, please refrain from disturbing my patrons when they intend to dine at my establishment."

There was a gasp from the assembled pirates at the head-chef's daring. But this was nothing compared to the gasp that followed it when in response, Hawk-Eyes Mihawk burst out laughing. It was evident that whatever hidden interaction there had been between Zeff and him, it was sufficient to amuse the warlord of the sea.

"You haven't changed much, Red-Leg. But have no fear, I did not come here for that girl. All that said..." - here he fixed his eye on the cowering Bonney again - "I would advise you not to loiter around this area now that your whereabouts have been revealed. Just a courteous warning."

With that, having had his fill of entertainment for that day, he left.

* * *

Bonney watched Mihawk's boat disappear into the distance. She was still trembling.

It was over, all over, and any hope of a peaceful period in her life with which to enjoy just living was gone. Once the word got out... they would be after her again and then...

She didn't like to think about that.

She would have liked to stay at the _Baratie_. Sanji was wonderful and Old Man Zeff was incredible. But if she stayed there would be no doubt that the fate of the _Baratie _would be the same as every other place that she had ever dared to call home.

_They would stop at nothing, nothing to get at her._

"I just want... to be free."

"They the say person with the most freedom in the world is the Pirate King!" said the voice of the busboy, breaking her out of her depressed reverie."That's why I want to be the Pirate King."

Bonney started, not realising that she had spoken aloud earlier. "That's the craziest way of going about it, but I guess I can't argue with that," she conceded.

Luffy flashed an ear-to-ear grin. "See? We'll be free! You won't have anything to worry about. I won't let anything happen to a member of my crew."

"What are you talking about? You don't have a crew."

"Yes I do. Counting myself and you I have two people!"

"Hang on a freaking minute, you can't just decide to make someone a member of your crew! You didn't even ask me!"

"Oh. You're right!"

There was a pause.

"Say... you wanna be in my pirate crew?"

"YOU CAN'T JUST ASK HER LIKE THAT YOU SHITTY BUSBOY-"

"Sure," Bonney interrupted quickly before Sanji had finished his sentence.

"WHAAAAAT?" the watching chefs chorused as all heads turned to stare at her.

"Every pirate king needs a cook!" Bonney attempted to say brightly.

Sanji simply surrendered. He had far exceeded his surprise quota for the day.

* * *

"It's settled then! But I'm going to be captain, okay?"

"You can be captain all you want, Luffy. I'm happy being your obscure and unknown cook."

"You're a cook? AWESOME!"

"Didn't I just say I was a cook? Why else did you ask me to join your crew then?"

"Your devil-fruit's really cool."

Bonney would have made a sarcastic remark here, but it was actually a fairly good reason. "Okay... fine. So, do you have a ship?"

"Mine got sucked into a whirlpool, but I'll get another one."

"Riiight..."

While this exchange was going on, what was left of the Don Krieg pirates were still left gazing dumbly at the corpse of their former leader.

"What do we do now?"

Gin spoke slowly.

"Don Krieg is dead. There is no longer any reason for us to fight. Gather what is left of our fleet and pull back."

There was a dumbfounded silence from the gathered pirates. If they had harbored any doubts about Gin, the power vacuum left by the demise of their captain seemed to have switched their loyalty back to their commander. One by one, they obeyed him and made preparations to leave, lashing together the wreckage of their flagship to form a raft.

"Commander Gin, what about the ship-ship?"

"The ship-ship?"

"The sheeeep-ship."

"Oh... the sheeeep-sheeeep."

"What are those idiots talking about?" Sanji wondered.

"Hey, what do they have there?"

Luffy was jumping up and down in excitement and curiosity. "It's a sheep ship!"

Hidden behind the giant flagship of the Don Krieg pirates, was a small caravel, with a sheep's figurehead at her prow. It had been such a small little thing compared to the larger vessel that it had been unnoticed until Mihawk's sword cut the former into pieces.

"Keep it," said Gin magnanimously. "Think of it as compensation for the the other ship Don Krieg sank."

"You're giving it to us?" said Bonney in surprise.

"You're giving it to them?" Sanji was secretly glad that he had given up on trying to keep track of his surprise quota for the day.

Luffy grinned. "I knew you weren't a bad person."

Gin merely shrugged. But his face bore a small grin as well.

* * *

"What will you do now, Gin?" Sanji asked the former Don Krieg pirate as he crossed from from the _Baratie_ to where his men awaited.

"I'm still a pirate," said the man, who after getting over the shock of losing his captain, seemed to be growing into his new leadership role well. "We'll start all over again. But this time, I'll live for my own dreams, not Don Krieg's." For a moment, there was no sound but the ocean as both men regarded each other. "Sanji-san, I am still very grateful... and I am very sorry about-"

Sanji cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Never mind that, Gin. Come back and eat here sometime."

A smile spread across the pirate's face. "I'd like that very much, Sanji-san. I might really take you up on that offer."

And he did.

* * *

The farewell party was in full swing.

"You sure about this?" Sanji asked Bonney and he helped her carry food with which to restock the sheep ship. "I mean, going off sailing with some crazy rubber boy you barely know?"

"Don't be silly, I can take care of myself," Bonney gave a laugh and winked. "Probably better than you."

Sanji turned red. It was likely enough to be true.

"Just kidding, Sanji-kun. But why don't you come along?"

"What?"

"Come along with us! You have things to do out there don't you? And there's room for more than one cook in the kitchen!"

For a moment the sounds of the party were silenced to Sanji's ears as what Bonney was suggesting slowly sunk in. Bonney was asking him to come along and be a pirate with the crazy rubber boy. Leave the Baratie, leave the East Blue, leave Zeff, and go off to new adventures in the Grand Line.

_Someone has to find the All Blue..._

Sanji stared at the girl of his dreams, desperately searching for the right words to say.

"I... I have this dream..."

* * *

"...really? That's an amazing dream!" Bonney's voice was high-pitched in her excitement.

Zeff, who was on the other side of the room, overheard part of the exchange between the two cooks, and slipped out of the room with an all-knowing smile on his face. He didn't need to hear the rest of what the girl had said; Sanji's gobsmacked expression had said it all.

"Finally," said the old man to himself, "I'll be rid of that stubborn little eggplant. And that stupid boy can finally leave this place and follow his dream."

Even he knew how unconvincing _that_ sounded, so he began practicing his 'angry' face for when he had to pretend to be surprised when Sanji broke the news to him.

But when the party ended hours later , Sanji still hadn't said a word to him about leaving.

"Straw-Hat is setting off," he heard one of the chefs say to Sanji. "Aren't you going to say goodbye?"

"Don't need to. You seen the shitty old geezer?"

"Not sure. Why?"

"None of your business."

The old man could only come to the conclusion that his protege was still apprehensive about breaking the news to his mentor. Maybe it would be easier if he, Zeff, just let Sanji slip away without saying goodbye. Sometimes words were not needed between men. Certainly not men of strong ambitions and a common understanding such as them both. So he stayed where he was, hidden in the pantry, until he judged that enough time had passed for Sanji to make up his mind.

"BYE STRAW-HAT! BYE MISS BONNEY! BYE YOU ALL!"

"COME BACK AGAIN!"

So they were leaving.

"BYE EVERYBODY!"

And then Zeff made his appearance, just in time to nod and wave at the sheep ship, which was already far into the distance. But something didn't appear quite right. There were only two sets of figures waving from the deck...

"There you are. Where've you been hiding, old geezer?"

Zeff turned around in amazement.

"Why are you still here?"

"What are you talking about, you senile old man? I work here." Sanji lit a cigarette and took a deep draw. "I'm not going anywhere."

"You're a fool, little eggplant." Zeff's voice was trembling in disbelief as Sanji watched the sheep-headed ship sail away. "You could have gone with that Straw-Hat boy and found the All Blue!"

Sanji continued gazing into the distance and didn't reply.

"And you would have been with _her_."

OK, that was a low blow.

"You know something, Owner Zeff?"

Zeff started. Sanji had always called him 'shitty old geezer' or something along those lines. The respectful tone was downright unnatural.

"When I was a boy, I had a dream. As a child I wanted to find the All Blue. But now I'm a man, I know what I really want is to stay here and fulfill our dream of making the _Baratie_ the greatest restaurant in the Five Seas."

"Stupid kid, I thought you actually believed in the All Blue. Never thought you'd give it up."

"Like how you gave yours up?"

"I thought I had passed my dream on to the next generation," Zeff snarked pointedly. "Didn't know he'd turn out to be an idiot."

"Well... I'm your protege, aren't I?" the sous-chef retorted just as pointedly. "I followed your example."

"What do you mean, eggplant?"

"I still believe in the All Blue." Sanji smiled, oddly at peace with himself. "I just passed the dream of finding it on to another person."

* * *

Across the East Blue, a small caravel with a crew of two was sailing.

"Bonney! FOOD!"

"You ate just an hour ago!"

"But I'm hungr... HEY! YOU'RE EATING TOO!"

"I was just snacking!"

They were so going to run out of food before the next island.

"What's this?" Luffy asked as he stole a sandwich off her plate. "Wait a minute... Bonney! HOW COULD YOU? You took Zeff Jii-chan's journal!"

"That's not it, dumbass." Bonney snapped, protectively gathering the book and notes that she had been examining. "This is Sanji-kun's journal. He gave it to me. It's got recipes in it."

"Oh." Luffy's expression went back to normal. "That's ok then."

Bonney shrugged. Some things it was easier not to have to explain to her prospective captain. And some things he didn't need to know. Like the _other_ journal she'd gotten from Sanji-kun.

Yes, the other journal which she now kept in the drawer, with its meticulous notes and annotated maps which would no doubt come in handy when they got into the Grand Line. A leather-bound notebook, with the words "How To Find The All Blue" scrawled childishly on the cover.

* * *

**_Elsewhere in the East Blue, two years ago..._**

"What the hell was that?" The swordsman was on one knee, panting heavily.

"You're going to complain that I cheated now? I thought you wanted a challenge," the victor smirked. "Perhaps I should have held back after all."

"No." Roronoa Zoro looked up at the first person to defeat him since Kuina. "You won, even if you had that freaky ability to help you. But you still won the sword-fight, and I'm a man of my word. I just wanted to know what that power that you used just now was."

"It's called a devil-fruit, Pirate Hunter," said the swordsman, sheathing his saber and slinging his other weapon to his side. "I suppose in the East Blue it's not that common of a thing. But if it's any encouragement, it says much of your skill that I was required to make use of it." He put on his hat, a plumed bicorne, with a gloved hand.

"Now, we should be going. Let's see... what should we call you? Hm ... three swords, and you fight like a demon beast. How about the number of the beast, Mr. 6?"

"You can call me whatever you like," the newly-christened Mr. 6 replied. "Just remember that every year I will fight you again, and the day I defeat you will be the day I stop working for you."

"Those terms are acceptable."

The made a striking pair: two swordsmen, each with a menacing aura of their own, walking out of the wrecked bar.

"So you've codenamed me Mr. 6, but what do I call you?"

"You can call me..." The light from a nearby lamp gave a glimpse of his new superior's masked, hawk-nosed face. "...Mr. 0."

* * *

_**End of Chapter 2**_

_**

* * *

**_

***[1] Krieg-Kuso** = Sanji is eloquent when it comes to finding different ways to call someone he doesn't like: "shitty".

***[2] Never tickle a sleeping dragon =** The Wano kingdom presumably does not speak Latin, but if they did the saying would be: _"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus"_

_

* * *

_

_**Apologies for this chapter taking so long, but egads, this was one of the hardest chapters I've ever had to write. My mistake was trying to write this mostly from Sanji's POV, which is not a character I connect easily with. I ended up having to reread the Baratie arc to get a feel for him. You'll notice events play our differently from canon, let's just say I am exercising my AU poetic license, and honestly I see no point writing something that is basically a transcript of canon.**_

_**Special thanks need to go to the wonderful callosum who betaed this chapter again. If you have time, do go check out her stuff as well!**_

_**Thanks for all your encouraging reviews and favourites. They mean a lot to me.**_

_**I don't plan to have a comprehensive Q and A section at the end of each chapter, because if I did they'd be longer than the fic itself. But I will post some answers for those questions that have been asked by multiple people, and if I think they are particularly interesting questions that I'd enjoy answering (and that you guys would probably enjoy reading).**_

_**I try to keep them as spoiler-free as I can, but I can't guarantee anything, so don't read the Q and A if you haven't read "In Five Pieces" and prefer to be surprised.**_

* * *

**animefan29 : ****So are the other Eleven Supernovas replacing the original Straw hats or are they being added to them?**

**A: **They will be replacing the original Straw-Hats completely.

**Multiple People: What will happen to the original Straw-Hats?**

**A: **I haven't forgotten them. They'll still be in the story even though they are not part of the Straw-Hat pirates in this AU.

**Worried Reviewer: ****Capone's df seems to require an army to stay inside of his body so how are you going to make him effective if you're planning to keep the crew to 11 members?**

**A:** The power of a devil-fruit depends on the creativity of its user. I'm sure Capone will think of something else to do with his ;)

* * *

**_AAAaaand we're done! Happy New Year and yes I timed this to coincide with the first chapter of One Piece for 2011! You know... Supernova 11... 2011... ok lame joke... I'll shut up now..._**


	3. The Legionary From Loguetown

_**The Supernova Eleven**_

_**Chapter 3: The Legionary From Loguetown**_

* * *

Somewhere in the East Blue, there is a peaceful, prosperous village called Cocoyashi.

And at the present, at that very village, a little memorial party was currently in full swing at a certain house half-hidden amongst the orange groves.

"Have some more of the orange pudding, Smoker-san," Nojiko proffered the brightly-coloured confection to the marine officer, topping it with generous helpings of cream. "Nami made it especially for you, you know."

The attractive teenage girl, on hearing her name mentioned, smiled, waved and stuck her tongue out, before resuming filling the gift basket of mikan meant for him to take back to Loguetown.

"Nami, is that any way to behave towards our honoured guest?" Genzo's tone was gruff, but you could tell that he did not mean his reprimanding words. After all, Smoker-san was close to the two girls. They both saw him as a cool older brother. Well he was a 'brother' only because they he'd refused to let them call him 'Uncle' Smoker.

The rest of the village of Cocoyashi saw him as their savior.

It had been eight years to the day since the fearless marine from Loguetown- then a lieutenant, had by sheer chance, stumbled onto the whole Arlong incident. He'd come to deliver a message to Bellemere from one of his higher-ups who had happened to be an old acquaintance of the former marine's.

Rear Admiral Momonga had been complaining about Bellemere's lack of letter writing* and had requested that someone be sent to check in on the retired marine. Smoker, who had displeased his superiors and was being punished with carrying out such trivial missions, had arrived to find the woman murdered and her adoptive daughter taken hostage by pirate scum.

The young lieutenant had been furious. A former marine who had given her life for Justice deserved better.

He'd reported the situation to the nearest marine authority, and had been promptly told to head back to Loguetown and let the local subdivision handle things.

Any other marine would have probably obeyed like a good boy, but not Smoker. Sensing that Justice had gone amiss somewhere, he'd headed straight back and single-handedly taken on the Arlong Pirates. The epic fight with the legendary ex-Sunny Pirates had reduced Arlong Park into ruins, but in the end, it had been Smoker who had emerged victorious with eight-year old Nami safely tucked under his arm.

Small wonder that the girl hero-worshipped Smoker after that.

"She smiles a lot these days," Genzo observed. "It used to be so rare back then, when she was under the thumb of that monster. He even branded her with his mark, you know."

Smoker scowled. He didn't like thinking of what the poor girl had gone through, forced into working for the scum that had murdered her mother right in front of her.

_If only he had come earlier..._

"Didn't you mention that the last time you wrote, she was getting it removed?"

"Yes actually, but she had it replaced with a different tattoo. Did you get a good look at it yet?"

Smoker squinted at the mark on the girl's left shoulder. Then his eyes widened. The word "Justice" had been emblazoned there.

"She's been talking about joining the marines recently. Just like her mother did," Genzo said softly.

"I think the example of a certain someone else she admires probably inspired it as well." Nojiko added, winking at the astonished marine captain. "The thing is, because of her past with Arlong and all she's scared they won't accept her, but she's determined. You will help her, won't you, Smoker-san?"

"So that's why you had me come here," Smoker puffed his cigars rapidly as he digested the sudden news. Then he sighed. "Well... can't be helped I suppose. I'm sure Tashigi will be happy to have her for company."

"Yay! Smoker-san! You're the best!" Nami gleefully hugged the bulky marine, who suddenly looked awkward at the display of affection. "I'll be sure to repay you... with my-"

"NAMI!"

There was laughter in the house amongst the orange groves. All in all Smoker was glad to be there, but he couldn't help the uncanny feeling as though his presence on Cocoyashi on that particular day had once again, changed the course of history.

* * *

Loguetown marine base was in chaos. Warrant-Officer Tashigi was doing her best to hold things together, but the sudden arrival of four devil-fruit users had been more than she could handle.

"What a bad time for Captain Smoker to be out of town..." groaned one of the other marines as the casualties began to rack up.

"D'you think the pirates all knew that?" the new petty officer, who had transferred from Shelltown, asked. "I mean it's kinda of a strange coincidence I guess. I mean it's like- I've never seen so many devil-fruit users all show up in the same place at the same time. And who would've thought they'd all start fighting each other too? Though it's a good thing they are. I mean, if they thought of ganging up on us I don't think we'd stand a chance."

This was true. While the pirates were indeed rampaging all over town, that was because they were busy fighting each other and everything else was collateral damage.

Tashigi just hoped that there would be enough of Loguetown left when Smoker got back.

* * *

"So tell me again why we are fighting these pirates when our original plan was to quietly restock in Loguetown, maybe recruit a few people before heading to the Grand Line?" Bonney asked Luffy as she introduced the wonders of rheumatism to a group of carnival-themed pirates.

"Well, I wasn't planning on running into them here."

"So you _have_ met them before?"

"Well, I ran into the clown at a town I stopped at before my boat got sucked into a whirlpool. That was right before I ended up at the _Baratie,_" began Luffy as he bazookaed another pirate into orbit. "He was kinda being mean to the townspeople so I beat him up."

"Right... And what was that about that slippery woman pirate whom my attacks kept sliding off?"

"I dunno. Maybe I fought her before or something. But I don't remember."

Bonney huffed in exasperation. "Luffy, is it a habit of yours, going around beating up other pirates and saving townspeople? Because if it is I'm gonna have to let you know that's not what pirates are supposed to do!"

"But they were my friends," the rubber-boy pouted as he stretched his arm and decked a pair of pirates across the jaw. "They were nice and gave me food, so I beat that clown up because he was hurting my friends."

Bonney opened her mouth and shut it again. It was really hard to argue against that kind of logic without coming off as a heartless monster.

* * *

"Unbelievable..." The weapon-seller's name was Ippon-Matsu, and he was still staring at the strange swordsman. This might not have been such an unusual occurrence if it weren't for the fact that there was massive pile of beli being stacked up in front of him. And he, known for being a greedy money-grubbing merchant, was not paying any attention to it.

"I hope this will be enough," said the swordsman's companion, an elegant girl who was so different from the former that Ippon-Matsu had difficulty believing she had voluntarily chosen to travel with the man. "Ten million beli for the sword Yubashiri, and the price of the other red sword...?"

"That sword is free," the weapons-seller said faintly. How long it had been since he had met a real swordsman amongst the throngs of pretenders?

"Th... that's too generous! We can't possibly..."

"Old man, I thank you."

"But Mr. 6!"

"Miss Mother's Day," interrupted the swordsman. "One day you might learn enough to respect the passing on of a swordsman's dream. Until then, just thank the man, or stay silent."

If any other person had been spoken to so rudely, they probably would have blown up at their companion. But not this girl. This girl, known as Miss Mother's Day, had been chosen from the ranks of Baroque Works to be Mr. 6's partner because she had been the only one with the right temperament to handle the position.

All of Mr. 6's previous partners had been sent packing (barely alive) after less than a week of being assigned to that man, for reasons ranging from "whiny" to "annoying". As Mr. 6 was undoubtedly the most powerful frontier agent they had, the big boss Mr. 0 himself, had instructed that he was to be kept pacified. And so, the rising star amongst the Frontier agents, Miss Monday (previously Miss Wednesday), who had been known for her diplomatic skill and charms, had been reassigned to the surly swordsman and recodenamed "Miss Mother's Day".

Mr. 8, whose partner she had been, hadn't been pleased about that, but his protests had been overruled by the Boss. And no one contradicted Mr. 6 either, because on top of being the most powerful non-officer agent in the Baroque Works, he had a friendly rivalry going on with the Boss that involved a no-holds-barred duel every year at Whiskey Peak.

"This is a good sign," said Mr. 6 as they exited the shop. "This will be the year I defeat Zero. I know it."

Miss Mother's Day was too tactful to point out that that was exactly what he had said the year before. Instead she focused her attention on a disturbance that seemed to have started while she and Mr. 6 had been preoccupied in the weapons shop.

"What's all ruckus going on over there?"

"Trouble. Pirates." Mr. 6 always had a nose for a good fight.

"Shall we investigate, Mr. 6? There might be some bounty heads in that group."

A slow grin spread across Mr. 6's face. "You take care of that. But I would like to try out my new swords on someone before I face Zero for our yearly duel. Let's go, Miss Mother's Day."

"Yes, Mr. 6!"

* * *

"So why were you late?" Smoker tossed a mikan to the recipient of his questions, who deftly caught it and began to peel the fruit, before tossing the rind over the side of the moving ship.

"Well, got a bit sidetracked back in Shelltown. My ship stopped there to restock, and on a tip I decided to go walking about town... in civilian clothes."

Smoker smirked. If the tales told by his newest petty-officer (the one who had been transferred from Shell Town) were true, he could pretty much guess what happened next.

"And so here I was stopping outside an inn and wondering if I wanted to go in for a drink when this self-important dandy comes along with his rabid pet dog. He didn't even have the damn thing under control and it was about to start biting the townspeople, so I... culled it."

"Dandy-boy didn't take too kindly to that?"

"Certainly not." The man smiled. "Blustered about his father and how that me being a punk, I'd regret it and they were taking me into custody of the Marines and I'd have to face Captain Morgan himself. So I decided to play along."

Smoker's chuckles were getting progressively louder. "How did Morgan react on realizing his son just tried to arrest THE Vice-Admiral Momonga himself?"

Vice-Admiral Momonga grinned sportingly as he scratched his topknot. "As you would expect. Blustered and tried to pin the blame on his useless son. I had to shut him up with some hard questions about how he was running the base."

"What happens to him now?"

Momonga shrugged. "Since I was in a hurry and off-duty anyway I let them know they were going to be getting an audit shortly. But most likely the place will be under new management soon. I sent a message and Aokiji said Garp'll take care of it... he's East Blue like you after all." He sighed. "Anyway, how did the party go? And how are Bellemere's girls- were they disappointed? I'll have to schedule another trip to visit them later and make up for it."

"Well, Nojiko will be forgiving I'm sure. As for Nami, why don't you go and tell her yourself? She's down below."

"She's on this ship?"

"Girl wants to join the marines."

"You're serious!"

"Yeah, imagine a Bellemere version two coming along."

"That would be just... Smoke!"

"Eh?" Smoker gave his superior an odd glance. Momonga was not the type to nickname anyone.

Wordlessly Momonga pointed at the horizon. A dark column of smoke was rising into the skies. From this distance it was barely a wispy spire but the two seasoned officers knew that in scale, that was an abnormally massive pillar of smoke, the type you get when an entire town is being set ablaze.

"Is that coming from...?"

"Shit!" swore the protector of Loguetown. "ALL HANDS ON DECK! I want this ship full speed towards Loguetown NOW!"

A head poked out from the cabin. "Smoker-san, what's going on- Oh, Momonga-san! I didn't know you'd arrived-"

"-I don't care if the wind's not in our favour! Use the auxiliary engines if you have to!" Smoker's voice drowned out Momonga's as the unfortunate crew scrambled to obey their captain's orders.

"Ah Nami... nice to see you again but things are about to get hectic here and I think-"

The bridge was dissolving into a frantic mess which swiftly ruled out any chance of further conversation.

"-AND GET LOGUETOWN ON The DEN-DEN!" bellowed Smoker.

* * *

"It's pointless! I am the great Buggy-sama, and your weak swords mean nothing to me!"

Warrant-Officer Tashigi winced in pain at her bleeding arm. But she was not standing down. Smoker had left Loguetown in her hands and she wasn't going to fail him... Except that this devil-fruit user was proving impossible to cut and with Tashigi being reliant on her swordsmanship, that was certainly going to be something of the problem.

"You're not burning down Loguetown on my watch!"

"Buggy, hurry up! Straw-Hat's getting away!" the other pirate, the (admittedly) gorgeous woman, called imperiously.

"In the name of Justice I will not allow you to-"

Iron-Mace Alvida hefted her trademark weapon and raised it high. "So talkative, this one. Let me fix that."

The pirate woman brought the bludgeon smashing down, but the blow never fell. With the clang of cleaving metal, she found herself holding the severed handle of the weapon, the weapon itself having been neatly removed by-

"Nice, Mr. 6! Watch out for the red-nose, he's Buggy the Clown, bounty of fifteen millio-"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING RED-NOSE YOU BLUE-HAIRED FREAK?"

Tashigi blinked. A man, clad in a green haramaki and wielding three swords, had darted between her and the two pirates.

"But Buggy dear, isn't your own hair blue as well?"

"Mr. 6, that woman's Iron-Mace Alvida, she's worth five million!"

"Twenty million, eh? This should buy me another good sword..."

Three swords...

With a thrill Tashigi suddenly realized that she was looking at the Pirate Hunter Zoro, East Blue's most infamous bounty hunter. He had disappeared from the weakest of the five oceans almost two years ago. Most people had speculated he had gone hunting for more worthwhile prey but why had he shown up to interfere in this fight now?

She wasn't the only one to recognise the swordsman.

"So... you've finally come for my head, Pirate Hunter Zoro. Well... if you want it- all 15 million of it, you're going to have to earn it. And as I was saying, your weak swords mean nothing!" The clown-pirate had whipped out more of his knives in preparation for the fight.

However, his melodramatic speech was cut short as a fresh squadron of marines came rushing into the square.

"Hang on in there Officer Tashigi!" said one that appeared to be a higher-ranking marine.

"More cannon fodder," said Alvida dismissively, unfazed despite her destroyed mace.

"Not really," Tashigi couldn't keep the triumphant tone out of her voice.

With a blam the two devil-fruit users found themselves encased in an iron net that had them rendered powerless.

"Sea-stone net as ordered, Ma'am!" said the marine to Tashigi.

"Good timing!" Tashigi got to her feet and brandished her sword. "I told you you wouldn't be able to get away with it, didn't I?" she said as she regarded her new captives.

"Well that was anti-climatic," groused Pirate Hunter Zoro as the marines clustered around the prisoners.

"What happened to the other two devil-fruit pirates?" Tashigi asked the men, who shrugged.

As if on cue, a boy with a straw-hat and a girl with a green non-straw one suddenly ran past from where they had been hiding.

"Hey, thanks for getting rid of them, Sword-chan!"

"Damnit Luffy, don't draw attention to us!"

Too late. The companion of Pirate Hunter Zoro immediately took notice. "6! That one's worth fifty million!"

"Fifty million?" Such an amount for a bounty head had been unheard of in the East Blue since the days of Gold Roger.

Both the pirate hunter and his partner were already off in pursuit of the two fleeing fugitives. "Zero would never let me live it down if I let a big one like this get away," said the pirate hunter as they ran. "And fifty... he must be a good fight at the very least."

Tashigi stared after the pursuing pair and wearily turned to ask her men if they had had any more sea-stone nets on hand.

"Sorry Ma'am! That's all the ones we have on hand with us right now, Ma'am!"

"If the stories they tell about Pirate Hunter Zoro are true, I guess we'd better have that fifty million on hand to pay up then," shrugged Tashigi philosophically.

* * *

At the docks of Loguetown, a member of Buggy the pirate's crew was busily trying, and failing, in an act of arson.

It was because of the heavy rain that Mohji was failing in his very important mission of setting fire to Straw-Hat's ship. And it was a very important mission- it was a necessary counter-measure in preventing their escape from the rightful vengeance of the Great Buggy-sama.

He hadn't expected the rain, true. But what he _really_ didn't expect was the Pirate Hunter Zoro himself suddenly jumping out of a window and beating the stuffing out of him.

"MR. BUSHIDO!" came the voice of a very very annoyed female. "I told you before, Straw-Hat didn't go that way!"

"Well, you said the left turn!"

"I said take the left turn, not _turn right and jump through someone's window, through their kitchen and then through new doors that you cut into the kitchen walls of ten of their neighbouring houses before jumping out of another window_!"

Then there was a pause.

"Although by doing that, I'm not sure how we ended up here- at their ship, before they did."

"So it worked out all right, see? We even had time to get rid of their crew member who was left on guard." said Mr. 6 as he kicked Richie the Lion in the face. The pet/combat animal had objected to the pirate hunter's treatment of his master.

"I... I guess we can wait for them here, Mr. 6."

"You're calling me 'Mr. 6' again. I guess that means you're not mad anymore... so you admit I was right."

"This is not the time, Mr. _Bushido_!"

"_Again_ with the Bushido..."

Naturally, it was in the midst of this argument that the two pirates showed up.

"Hey! Which one of you two is the Captain?" asked the famed pirate hunter, on noticing their breathless arrival.

"Him!" the pink-haired girl immediately said, pointing at her companion.

"I'm the captain!" the other pirate in the straw-hat volunteered almost as quickly. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be King of the Pi-!"

"-excellent, I'll be your opponent." interrupted Mr. 6, who had already pulled out a black bandanna and was tying it around his head. "He's mine, Miss Mother's Day."

"Mr. Bushido... that guy doesn't have a bounty."

"What? You said 50 million just now!"

"It's not him! It's the other one- waaaah!"

Three swords clanged to the ground as Mr. 6 and Miss Mother's Day were both reduced to crawling, crying babies.

"Yes, that was anti-climatic," said the fifty million bounty head as she and her captain, Monkey D. Luffy ran for the safety of their ship.

* * *

"So why did you turn those two into babies?" Luffy asked his cook as the _Going Merry_ cast off. "That guy with the swords, he looked really strong! I wanted to fight him!"

"Are you stupid or something? We're trying to get away! And that was THE Pirate Hunter Zoro, the most feared bounty hunter in the East Blue! And whoever that girl with him was, she knows too much!"

"Oh, you mean you wanted to stop her from talking?"

"Yes! I wanted to lie low!" groaned Bonney. "Why did I even think travelling with you was a great way to do that?"

Luffy, however, seemed more preoccupied about something else. "Hey Bonney, did she say that you already have a bounty?"

"Yes."

"How much?"

"Fifty million."

Luffy was staring at her.

"THAT'S NOT FAIR! I WANT A BOUNTY TOO!"

"THAT'S NOT A GOOD THING, LUFFY!"

Luffy was too busy sulking to reply.

"Come on Luffy, let's just get to the _Merry_ and get out of here! We'll just... get a crew once we get into the Grand Line!" Bonney changed tactics and tried to be appeasing.

"I guess so," Luffy was still sulking.

"And given what just happened at Loguetown, you'll get a bounty soon enough I'm sure!"

"That's true!" Luffy cheered up immensely as they steered the ship away from Loguetown. An obliging wind, in just the right direction, was propelling them forward. "When we get to the Grand Line, I'm gonna get a bounty that's even higher than yours! It's going to be... FIFTY-ONE MILLION!"

"Sanji-kuuun," Bonney muttered to herself, looking upwards at the stormy sky for sympathy. "Why did I decide to go with this guy? Whyyy?"

* * *

Lightning split the sky as a cloaked figure, unseen by the agitated marines running about below, sat and watched the dramatic escape of the Straw-Hat Pirates.

"Well well well... I guess he didn't need my help after all. Still, how interesting that he should have taken up with _her_, of all people. But it works well."

He watched as a small ship sailed into the distance and smiled. The world didn't know it then, but he did. In the near future, the occupants of that ship were going to turn the balance of the world on its head.

"Go forth... Luffy! Change the world! It is your destiny!" said the most wanted man in the world to the one who would be his legacy.

* * *

"Get the ship ready," Smoker's scowl was terrifying as he surveyed the ruins of his town. Tashigi had just given her report and presented the two devil-fruit user prisoners. "I'm going after those two pirates."

"And your duties as head of the marine base? What about that?" Momonga reminded him pointedly.

Smoker only returned a look that was just as pointed.

"You're going to get me to cover for you, of course," sighed the Vice-Admiral, giving Nami a resigned see-Nami-this-is-how-he-treats-his-superiors look. "They're probably going to head for the Grand Line, you know. Maybe you should let me go after them ins-"

"-I'll follow them into the Grand Line if I have to. I'm going to show those little pieces of trash-" Smoker snarled as he gripped his jutte for emphasis. "-that no one... NO ONE, trashes my town and gets away with it."

* * *

"Why didn't you warn me earlier that that girl had devil-fruit powers?" Mr. 6 was extremely displeased, to say the least.

"Sorry, I forgot," said Miss Mother's Day, mortified. She was steering their ship in pursuit of Straw-Hat's ship, but with the current weather conditions, the smaller vessel had scant chance of catching up with the caravel.

"Hmmph! A devil-fruit user again. It's always those devil-fruit users and their powers. Unforgivable!"

"Not all devil-fruit users are-" began Miss Mother's Day, before she thought the better of finishing the sentence. "Never mind, Mr. 6. We'll catch them after they get to the first island of the Grand Line."

"True, but this had better not interfere with my duel with Zero."

"We'll send a message to Whiskey Peak," said Miss Mother's Day. "And not to worry, we'll have a warm welcome ready waiting _just_ for them."

* * *

_**Elsewhere on the Grand Line...**_

"Are you sure of this, Miss All-Sunday?" The man stood looking out the window, his masked face turning to look at his partner, whose composed demeanour was at odds with the devastating news she had just presented to him.

"Absolutely sure, Mr. 0."

"That clever girl," smiled 'Mr. 0'. "She used her partnership with Mr. 6 and my agreement with him to good advantage."

"Would you like me to deal with them?"

"Well, for the sake of our benefactor, obviously we need to handle this. But as it happens, my yearly duel with Mr. 6 at Whiskey Peak is coming up," said Mr. 0 as he reached for his sabre and examined its freshly sharpened edge. "It would be a good time to kill two birds with one stone."

"Yes, about Mr. 6... reports indicate that he's getting harder and harder to control. He's been quite the terror since his defeat of Mr. 8 in that dispute last year."

"That does not surprise me. Even I was hard-pressed to defeat him in our last duel. I am sure he's gotten even stronger by now."

"Will this present a problem?"

"It will all depend on whether I win, and on how their loyalties play out." Mr. 0 sheathed his sabre again, and slung it to his side. "Let's just say that this year, things at Whiskey Peak are going to get... _interesting._"

* * *

_**End of Chapter 3**_

* * *

***[1] Bellemere and Momonga** = Obviously they had plenty in common, including mohawks.

(See pingteo(dot)deviantart(dot)com/#/d36rh6d for the doodle that started it)

* * *

_**If this chapter feels a bit short, it's because it was originally part of the next chapter, which was long and convoluted. I couldn't make the two parts fit together, so in the end I had to split it off. So think of this as part one of a two-parter.**_

_**Thanks again go to callosum, who despite a busy schedule managed to beta this chapter for me!**_

* * *

**Q and A:**

**Page-Mistress: "electric" blue egg. Nice.**  
A: I was wondering if anyone would catch the reference. For those interested, the devil-fruit in question is a curly-haired rambutan.

**Aoi24: I think it's perfect actually. Who honestly sticks with their early childhood dreams so religiously aside from shounen heroes? Instead Sanji inspires the pretty girl...actually I think that would bring him decades of happiness. XD**

A: The theme of chapter 2 was "Dreams Change", and you got it spot-on!

**Animefan29: Bonny seemed to agree to joining Luffy's crew pretty quickly (throwing out Oda's thing about having new crew members decline the first time they are asked only to be convinced later).**

A: Well, I wanted to break the theme to show that this is not standard-issue One-Piece, but a Elseworld version of it. :)

**archsage10: I can't say that it would be very likely that Bonney and Luffy survive to the next chapter. With appetites like theirs it just seems more likely they'd die of starvation.**

A: Indeed, it is going to be something of a plot poi- problem... I meant, problem ;)

**Mkcoolc86: Well although you don't have to answer it right away or maybe it will be touched on later in the story but what happened to Koby and that whole situation with Captain Morgan?**

A: Fortunately, Momonga dropped in to handle that part just for you ;) Well... that, and also because I like writing Momonga as a character and it was fine excuse XD.

**Shadowzero789: Btw do you have some sort of plan to define the limits of Bonney's df powers? The only indication I got from the manga of her limits was that it probably involved using her hands (since Blackbeard tied her up with her hands behind her and she couldn't use her df to fight back).**

A: Truth be told she's giving me a headache on that too, but yes, I do have a working plan. If anything pops up in the manga that contradicts it I'll just go back and make changes.

**Tyrantpope: Did you seriously make X. Drake into Mr. 0? What about Sandcroc?Can't wait to find out who Miss Mother's Day turns out to be. My mind is agog with all sorts of insane (and inane) possibilities.**

A: I can't answer the first two questions since that gives away most of the next chapter, but I hope you found the answer to the third, which was in this chapter satisfactory. ;)

**TMX Archives: I can't wait for the rest of the crew to assemble, and for you to expand upon those little glimpses of Supernova life you gave us in "Five Pieces". I particularly look forward to the Kidd-Law love(?)-hate snarkfest and poor Drake's trials and tribulations as the Only Sane Man.**

A: I am particularly looking forward to those too. In fact I do have some written already, they are just waiting for the story to catch up with the point I can put them in.

**SilverRainFalls: This story totally caught my attention! I've been looking around for a Supernova fic that wasn't a romance-with-an-OC fic for ages, and then I happened to check your profile page and found this!**

A: I can so sympathise with this. Sadly, non-romance Supernova fics are rather few and far between :( If you find any, I want them links too!

**justbehappydammit: Okay, I'm trying to figure out who is who. Let's see if I got it all. The first guy, the red head, is obviously Kidd, though I can't begin to guess who the other apprentice is, since it's a cameo from another work apparently. The Long-Arm is clearly Apoo, with a cameo from Brook. I don't know for sure who the lifeboat people are, though I think maybe one of them is Drake, with the other possibly being Bonney. The High-Priest is almost certainly Urogue. The swordsman is Zoro, of course. The unnamed captain is without a doubt Hawkins, with his tarot card theme. The shady figure is probably Capone. The guy attacking Moria's base is surely Killer. The "doctor" is definitely Law. And the boy is none other than Monkey D. Luffy. Am I right?**

A: Mostly. One of the guesses is wrong and one more is missing, but overall, they're mostly right.

* * *

**_Hopefully I can get that next chapter done faster, but thanks for reading!_**


	4. The Big Eater's Bargain

**_A/N: And it's time for another chapter! _**

**_I stumbled across this AMV and decided it's oddly appropriate for being the Supernova Eleven Opening Theme XD Especially for the Enies Lobby Arc since there's a disproportionate amount of Kid (but sadly, no Zoro) in it, but that's while to go so I might as well get you all into the mood for reading post the link now: watch?v=QK7Z1YoT9iM_**

* * *

**_The Supernova Eleven_**

**_Chapter 4: The Big-Eater's Bargain_**

* * *

"I'm hungry... Bonney, FOOD!"

"Shut up. I am too you know. And you know perfectly well why we don't have any food."

Two miserable pirates were leaning over the railing of the _Going_ _Merry_. They were trying to catch fish, but it was proving to be futile thanks to the high volume of noise that came from their bickering. Every fish in the vicinity was giving the little caravel a wide berth.

"This is all your fault Luffy! If only you weren't such a magnet for trouble we would have been able to stock up on food in Loguetown!"

"But I didn't want to attract trouble! It wasn't my fault!"

There was a loud rumbling sound as two empty stomachs voiced their displeasure.

"I'm too hungry to argue with you," Bonney muttered weakly.

"Me too."

Both remained in silence for about a minute.

"Bonney... I'm hungry..."

"GAAARGH!" The irate cook of the _Going Merry_ flounced away in exasperation, tossing her fishing rod onto the wooden deck as she did so.

They were fast approaching the Reverse Mountain, but having been unable to replenish their supplies and having had to flee from the closest island (Loguetown) with the Marines probably in hot pursuit, the crew of the _Going Merry _were finding themselves dying of starvation, and they _hadn't even entered the Grand Line yet_.

"Sanji-kun, how am I going to find the All Blue at this rate?" Bonney muttered to herself as she looked over the diaries that he had passed on to her. "I don't think we'll even make it into the Grand Line!"

As if in response, a piece of paper that had been overlooked slipped out from where it had been sandwiched in the last page. Curiously, the girl reached out for it and glanced at the familiar writing - Sanji's.

_To Bonney,_

_In case of an emergency..._

She raised an eyebrow. How had she failed to notice that note earlier? Unfolding the paper, she read:

_My Dearest Bonney-Chwan,_

_I leave this note in hope that you will never have to resort to doing as it says, but if you are reading this, it must be because you have run out of food. _

_Just in case, I have hidden a cache of emergency food supplies on the Going Merry. They are mostly dried foodstuffs, but it should last you a few days, longer if you ration. Make sure Luffy does not know where it is or he'll eat it all._

_It's located in the hidden cabinet at the back of the pantry door._

_Your handsome Prince,_

_Sanji._

Outside, Luffy jumped as a shriek of delight echoed from below decks.

"_SANJI-KUUUUUN! I LOOOOOOVE YOOOOU!" *_

* * *

**_Meanwhile..._**

"If you're going to keep sneezing in the kitchens, wear a mask," said Zeff curtly to Sanji as the latter was busy fricasseeing mushrooms for the _Baratie's _dinner service.

"Somebody must be talking about you, Sanji," commented one of the chefs.

"Hm," said Sanji, scratching his chin as he headed to the cupboard for the suggested face-mask. "Now that you mention it, I keep getting this odd feeling that I should be somewhere else right now."

For a moment, he thought hard.

And then he gave up, shrugged and went back to the mushrooms.

* * *

The hooded man sat at the edge of the sea cliff. Far below, the sea pounded against the rounded boulders that formed the base of Cactus island.

"Mr. 8!"

The leader of Whiskey Peak turned to look at his partner, who was energetically waving around a den-den mushi. Given that Miss Monday had a grip like a vice, one almost felt sorry for the little invertebrate.

"Who is it, Miss Monday?" he asked calmly.

"Miss Mother's Day."

Faster than one would have thought possible, the man was already next to her and and was listening intently to the frontier agent through the device. Miss Monday waited patiently. She knew her partner well enough to know then when it came to Miss Mother's Day, it was always special. The girl had been his former partner but Ms. Monday always held the suspicion that she had been something more as well.

"...I see. Of course. We will take care of it." The den-den mushi's receiver was replaced as the conversation came to an end.

"Is Mr. 6 on the rampage again?"

"No, actually," said Mr. 8 thoughtfully. "She was giving us notice to expect a pair of … visitors. One of them is worth fifty million."

"The Flytrap strategy?"

"It would probably be the most feasible." Miss Monday could not see Mr. 8's face as he said this, but she could imagine it from the distaste in his voice. Mr. 8 had always preferred to take a bounty the straightforward way- by simply defeating them. But his recent loss at the hands of Mr. 6 had made him somewhat more pliable to using strategy and subterfuge to achieve his ends, even if he made it rather clear that it was only as a last recourse.

And in this case, it was best to play it safe. Especially when the Boss himself was about to pay them a visit.

"I'll get the welcoming committee ready." If anything, Miss Monday was a professional and promptly left to make the preparations.

Mr. 8 followed after her slowly, still deep in thought.

* * *

"Sorry about that Laboon," the old man who lived at Twin Capes told Bonney and Luffy. "For the record, he's not the type of whale who normally really eats people."

"He freaking swallowed us!" said Bonney, still in shock. After finally making their way to the Reverse Mountain and into the Grand Line, the last thing she had expected was being swallowed by the biggest whale she had ever seen.

Her ears were still ringing from when they had descended from the Reverse Mountain. She, admittedly, had been screaming in terror. Luffy, on the other hand, had been screaming in joy and exhilaration as the _Going Merry_ slid all the way into the whale's stomach. She supposed having food again had restored his spirits rather quickly (even if he had lamented that none of it had been meat).

The old man simply shrugged as he tucked away his 'ipecac' shot, whatever that was. "It was either swallow your little ship, or have it smash against him. You'd lose if that was the case. You're quite fortunate I was hanging around inside to let you out."

Bonney conceded that point. That whale was freakishly large, and after all, the old man had invited them to dinner. Given that he was their only chance at resupplying, and Sanji's emergency supplies wouldn't be lasting any longer, she really wasn't about to get on his wrong side.

Luffy however, didn't seem to be on the same page as her.

"Hey Ossan, why do you have a flower on your head?" he asked their host bluntly.

Bonney sighed. _No tact at all..._

* * *

Momonga sighed as the girl in front of him pleaded once more.

_No sense of self-preservation at all..._

"But Momonga-saaan!" Nami was trying her best I'm-about-to-cry look, but unlike Genzo or even Smoker, Momonga was completely unmoved by her theatrics. Well that was not strictly true. He _had_ been moved, but he'd managed to shake off the effect of her tear-brimmed eyes and was standing fast on his decision.

"Absolutely not." His voice was edged with steel. "I will not allow it. Your joining the marines is one thing. But wanting to go with Smoker into the Grand Line in pursuit of a 50 million beli pirate is another. May I remind you, young lady, that you haven't even started combat training?"

"I'll learn as we sail! Miss Tashigi has already promised to train me herself. " Nami insisted, "And I'll earn my keep! You know I'm a really good navigator already... I can stay behind the lines at first and not get involved in the fighting!"

The vice-admiral gritted his teeth. Why was he the only one with any sense around these parts? It was as though every marine from the East Blue he had any dealings with HAD to have this same foolhardy sense of suicidal overconfidence and a total lack of understanding of the word 'consequences'. Garp was legendary for this, but then again, he did have the strength to back it up. And then there was Bellemere.. She had really been a fearless hellcat, constantly throwing herself at opponents twice her size... and now it looked like Nami was going the same way.

And of course there was Smoker, the very definition of a loose cannon if there ever was one. In fact, he had given Momonga more headaches than all the others combined, although this was only because Garp's problems were usually handled by Sengoku and Tsuru and it was very rare that Momonga got involved. The vice-admiral was sure that if he had been given the task of cleaning after Garp's messes, his mohawk would turn white very quickly.

Handling Smoker was work enough as it was. In fact, if it hadn't been for the fact that Momonga and a few higher-up constantly covered for the 'White Hunter', he would probably have been kicked out of the Marines long ago.

"Nami, I highly doubt that a ship sailing in the Grand Line will be able to get by without fighting."

"Some of the ship's crew, like the cook, don't fight, either."

"Usually they don't. But they have been trained to, actually. Unlike yourself. Nami, please be reasonable. Your mother's ghost would haunt me if I let anything happen to you!"

"Bellemere wouldn't have wanted me to be a scaredy-cat," Nami pouted.

Momonga scowled. That was true enough. He cared for Bellemere's girls dearly but by George they sure knew how to play dirty. "It's not about holding you back, Nami. I just can't let you go somewhere that dangerous without sufficient preparation!"

"I'll be safe as long as Smoker-san is around. Momonga-san, _please_! I owe him so much, and he's sailing off to the Grand Line and I'm scared I might not see him again and I just want to help him..."

In the end, Momonga could only hold out so long.

"Fine. I'll make the arrangements. No direct fighting until you pass combat training. If there are any skirmishes I expect you to be at the back with the non-combatants. And tell Tashigi and Smoker that they had better not let anything happen to you, or they'll be hearing from me! And you'd better hurry, I think Smoker's setting out soon."

"Yay Momonga! You're the awesomest!" Nami squealed as she flung herself at the marine officer.

Momonga flushed. Nami's impulsive glomping hugs really did remind him of Bellemere a little too much.

* * *

"That old man sure gave us a lot of food," Luffy said happily.

"Never underestimate the power of nostalgia," Bonney said smugly as the _Going Merry _sailed away from the Twin Capes.

The old man, Crocus-san, had been pleasant company. And generous too. In addition to gifting them with food, he'd also supplied them with a Log Pose (which she had intended to get in Loguetown but Luffy's run-in with those clowns pirates had ruined those plans). Of course, she _had _managed to please him by using her devil-fruit powers to turn Laboon into a baby whale for a little while. The old doctor (he said he used to be a ship's doctor) had said that in addition to making it easier to treat the whale while he was that much smaller, it brought back memories of a happier time.

And that whale was incredibly cute as a baby. Even she had secretly squeed at seeing it.

The old man had gone on to talk about the whale's original companions, who had left him there for his own safety while they all sailed further into the Grand Line. Luffy had been hanging on to his every word, right to the tragic end of the story where the doctor told of how he had followed after them and discovered that the entire crew had perished.

The calm way the old doctor relayed their brutal ending had sent a chill down Bonney's spine.

"It was a good idea of yours to challenge Laboon to a fight, I have to say," Bonney remarked to her captain, who was in a good mood as well. The dinner Crocus-san had put up had featured a lot of Sea-King meat. "I hope it's not going to keep hurting itself after this. How did you know that making a promise to challenge it like that that would make it stop?"

Luffy looked at her with a seemingly blank expression. "Well, Flower-Ossan said Laboon's nakama couldn't keep their promise 'cause they died. And the reason he's waiting there was to keep that promise. So it's simple - he just needs another promise to keep him going."

Bonney looked at her captain in surprise. It was a surprisingly deep insight from a guy whose thoughts only seemed to revolve around meat and fighting.

"I guess I'd feel like that too if I lost everyone too," she said aloud softly, in quite a different voice from her normally brash self.

The Log Pose had set some hours earlier and was pointing them to the next island. At first Luffy had been the one assigned to keep it, but Bonney had rapidly discovered it was a mistake as the rubber-boy was so careless, it was in danger of being smashed every five minutes. Also, he kept digging his nose and leaving boogers on the glass housing. For that and several other reasons, it was now perched on her wrist. Sure, it was a pain to work in the kitchen wearing it, and she had to take it off every time she did the dishes, but at least she had the peace of mind knowing they weren't going to lose their main means of navigating on the Grand Line.

Still, their lack of manpower worried her . There was no way she was going to be able to play navigator and be the cook at the same time. Sure, Luffy was a great help in a fight, but there were other roles that needed to be filled on the ship. Bonney had quickly realized that if there was any planning to be done she was going to have to be the responsible one to do it.

It was a pressing issue that had been worrying her for a time and really needed to be discussed.

"Hey Luffy."

"Eh?"

"We really need to get more crewmembers. The both of us can't handle the _Merry _alone. Not in the Grand Line."

"Yep! That's why I asked Flower-Ossan to join."

Which was true. He had. The old doctor had declined, unsurprisingly.

"We should have asked Crocus-san for information about the next island," Bonney reflected. "I wonder if it's the kind of place where we'll be able to recruit people?"

Not to mention whether they would agree to come along. They didn't have much funds with them. At that point Bonney really missed her old treasure-laden ship. Getting crew was a lot easier when you could just pay them.

"Nah, there's no need. It'll be a mystery island!"

"Luffy, be serious-"

"Don't worry. We'll meet a few of our future nakama there. I'm sure of it."

He said it with such happy conviction that she felt bad at the thought of making him think otherwise.

But for reasons she couldn't explain, she had a bad feeling about the next island.

* * *

"If Whiskey Peak is thinking of killing Laboon for meat, think again. I've already had to send that other pair packing." Crocus presented an imposing figure, despite his age. Perhaps the way he handled the harpoon in his hands had something to do with it. "If you're thinking of trying something, someone's going to get hurt."

Both Mr. 6 and Crocus were exchanging death glares.

"Oh yeah?" the hot-blooded swordsman retorted. "Who?"

There was a thwack as the boom of the boat's small sail 'accidentally' knocked into Mr. 6, aborting his attempt to pick a fight.

"Oops. Sorry, Mr. Bushido! Sir,- we're not here for the whale. We're just passing by," Miss Mother's Day intervened. Then she turned to her partner and hissed, "Don't forget who you're meeting in Whiskey Peak. We can't be late!"

"Right," Mr. 6 replied, still glaring at the old man. "I have bigger fish to fry."

Crocus watched the both of them sail away after their log pose had set.

"Mr. 6, eh?" he muttered to himself. "It suits him, that swordsman has the eyes of a demon beast."

He wondered who the bigger fish he had referred to was.

* * *

Whiskey Peak was in a flurry of preparations. Disguises were donned, traps were set and food was spiked in anticipation of their new arrivals.

"What about Mr. 0?" asked Mr. 9, as he practiced his routine.

"We'll just have to make sure we wrap up the fifty million bounty before he arrives for his duel with Mr. 6," Mr. 8's brow furrowed with worry. If those pirates didn't show up soon, things could be awkward. It really was bad timing.

He particularly hoped that their arrival wouldn't mess up their _other_ schedule.

"Has there been any word from Miss Mother's Day?" he asked Ms. Monday.

"We received a written report that they made it into the Grand Line."

"And the preparations?"

"All ready."

"Good." Mr. 8 sat down and leaned over, in a manner that reminded one of a predator waiting for prey. "Now we wait."

* * *

"So they're going for the Flytrap? How typical," Mr. 0 sighed as he looked through the short dispatch from Whiskey Peak. "Still I suppose without Mr. 6 present, fifty million without resorting to subterfuge would be something of a handful for that lot."

"The Flytrap? Isn't that the one where they lure the bounty head in with food and drink and take them unawares later?"

"Classic, isn't it, Ms. All-Sunday?"

"Sometimes hidden ways are best." Miss All-Sunday shrugged.

Mr. 0 had resumed polishing his gleaming sabre and didn't respond. It had to be in perfect condition for the upcoming fight.

"You're being unusually pensive," he said suddenly. The masked man's eyes flickered away from his sword to focus on his longtime companion. If there had been an observer to their conversation, they might have noticed his tone had changed. "What are you planning?"

"Nothing to worry about."

"_Robin-" _

"- Drake," the woman said in response, cutting her partner off. "Don't worry about it. It's be fine as long as you can beat Mr. 6 this year."

There was a moment of silence as the man scrutinized the woman's composed face. Finally, he replied. "Even if he has gotten stronger, it's still far too early for a whelp like him to beat _me_."

"You will have to be careful. It isn't going to be just a simple rematch this year. This time, there is going to be the the question of that _other_ one..."

"I don't worry about that. Knowing you, you've already called in Five and Valentine to handle our _other_ little friend."

The woman smiled. "Touche. You know me well... Mr. 0."

"Of course I do... Miss All-Sunday."

* * *

"This island is the best!" Luffy yelled happily as he stuffed another plate of spaghetti alla carbonara (generously fortified with chunks of pan-fried sea-king bacon) into his mouth.

"Keep talking, Luffy, and you're going to fall behind!" Bonney warned jokingly as she ate from two plates at the same time. There was no reason for her to have to demand for more food as was her wont. The servers were efficient and kept the food coming.

"Look at them go! Our two new contestants are really breaking the records for the annual Whiskey Peak Extreme Eaters competition!" the announcer roared in excitement.

The two pirates had arrived at Whiskey Peak to find friendly townspeople, much to their surprise and delight. In addition to throwing a welcome party, the townspeople had insisted on them joining in on their annual eating competition. It was no surprise really, that Bonney and Luffy both had enthusiastically agreed to this.

The mayor of the town, a hooded man whom Luffy had greeted with the blunt question of: "Hey ossan! Why are you wearing a dress and another one on your head?", stood watching the events from the back of the room. Other than the initial welcome (he was extremely well-spoken and hadn't even been offended, Bonney noted) he hadn't really said much else, and seemed to be content to let his subordinates do the entertaining.

Just because they were having the time of their lives didn't mean that Bonney had completely let her guard down, however. So despite being surrounded by a stack of empty plates and being constantly offered filled ones, when one of the townspeople approached the mayor and whispered something into his ear, she still managed to take notice.

But it wasn't really until the mayor's quick exit upon hearing the message, did Bonney really shift her attention from the event.

_Something is up._

She hadn't come this far without learning to listen to her gut. In more ways than one. Something was not quite right with their present scenario.

"Miss! More linguine?"

She took the plate, but one might have noticed that her eating rate had slowed down and was falling behind her captain's.

* * *

"When did Mr. 6 and Miss Mother's Day arrive?" Mr. 8 walked quickly, following Mr. 9's lead.

"Not five minutes ago. I er... told Miss Wednesday- I mean, Miss Mother's Day- about the progress of our plan but then Mr. 6 heard and he-"

"-THIS IS DISHONOURABLE!" came the angry shout from the distance.

"Mr. 6! Please-" Miss Mother's Day's voice could be heard trying to placate her partner.

Mr. 8's face darkened beneath his hood. "That devil-" he muttered to his subordinate as they hurried over, "-he's always causing trouble."

"When you said you'd call ahead, you didn't say anything about THIS!" Mr. 6 was indeed doing what Mr. 8 had said. Most of the Baroque Works agents present were backing away from him in fear. But not Mr. 8.

"Please don't yell at at Miss Mother's Day, Mr. 6." Despite the politeness of his language, there was no mistaking the controlled fury and the barely veiled dislike in the man's undertone.

The swordsman whirled around to glare at the leader of the Whiskey Peak bounty hunters. "Were you the one who made this decision, Eight?"

Mr. 8 kept his voice even. "May I remind you that your duel with Mr. 0 is scheduled for tonight? I would advise you save the fighting for then."

"Those two bastard pirates humiliated us at Loguetown! I'm going to be the one to take them down. And when I do, it's going to be by fair fighting, not this type of lowlife trickery!"

"A ruse would be the most effective way to take those two." Mr. 8 said calmly. "Especially after it was shown you couldn't handle those two in Loguetown-"

"_WHAT DID YOU SAY?"_

There was the sound of a sword being drawn, followed by a clash. The watching agents scrambled to get out of the way, and by the time they had the courage to look back, Mr. 8 had drawn his own sword and had parried the santoryuu master's attack.

"Mr. Bushido! Mr. 8! Please stop this!" As always, it was Miss Mother's Day who had to defuse the situation. "Remember what's at stake tonight!"

Both combatants stopped at her words.

"Right. There would be no point fighting someone I've already beaten before anyway," said Mr. 6 as he sheathed his sword.

Mr. 8 said nothing as he, too, put away his sword. But anyone paying attention would have noticed that his hand was shaking in anger.

"Eight-san..." Miss Mother's Day began.

"It's all right. I won't endanger what we worked for," the man said at last.

But even as Mr. 8 said his piece, Mr. 6, suddenly turned and leapt at the Whiskey Peak leader with his swords out.

"WATCH OUT!" the onlookers screamed.

For a moment it seemed as though he was going to strike the man from behind. But much to everyone's confusion, his leap carried him over the hooded man's head, far past the one everyone had assumed to be his intended target. Instead, he made a cutting motion in mid-air at what appeared to be nothing.

"What are you-" Miss Mother's Day began, shaken.

Her sentence was cut off as a fraction of a second later, two identical explosions occurred on either side of the trio. Fortunately, they had exploded far away enough to not have caused harm to any of them.

Mr. 6 ignored his partner's outburst and calmly sheathed his swords. Then he looked past her and towards the rooftop where two figures could barely be seen outlined against the night sky.

"Five! What's the meaning of this?"

Murmurs rose from the gathered agents as they became aware of the two newcomers.

"...it's Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine!"

"...what are the officer agents doing here... _?_"

The two figures on the rooftop moved forward into the light.

"Well now, looks like we've given ourselves away," said the first, a man dressed in a long red coat and dark glasses.

"Answer my question, Five!" Mr. 6 barked.

"Ah... Six. Crude as always. For your information, the Boss gave us a mission here to take care of a certain person. Although to be honest, orders were to wait until Mr. 6's duel with the Boss was over before we showed ourselves." Mr. 5 picked his nose languidly.

"But since you and Eight looked about to kill each other, we decided to act a bit sooner," said the man's partner, floating about with her umbrella open as she did so. "Can't have you doing our jobs for us, Mr. 6! Zero might end up giving you credit and promoting you to our spots."

"Of course, we didn't think both of you would actually back down and we blew our cover trying to stop you. Nice redirecting of my snot-bomb by the way, Mr. 6."

Both Miss Mother's Day and Mr. 8 seemed to have stiffened at this, and the latter also moved in front of the former in a protective gesture.

"Mr. Bushido... you saved us?"

"Wounds to the back are the a swordsman's shame," replied the swordsman. "I don't like people who sneak attack from behind."

"More of your stupid bushy-honour rubbish. Still, since we've started, we might as well just finish this now. Stay out of the way, Mr. 6, this doesn't concern you. Miss Valentine...?"

"Here I come!"

The next moment was a confusing flurry of motion. The airborne Miss Valentine suddenly plummeted downwards towards them with frightening force. At the same instant, something large and white appeared from seemingly nowhere, and streaked away with Mr. 6 and Miss Mother's Day in tow.

It didn't get far. A series of explosions in the air forced the flying creature to land again, not too far from the original spot where they had been standing at a moment ago. That area had since been reduced into a deep crater courtesy of Miss Valentine.

"Well now, looks like we flushed out a couple of hidden snipes," Mr. 5 said lazily as he continued to blow something that looked suspiciously like dandruff into the air, keeping the explosions going. "So that must be the famous flying devil-fruit I've heard so much of. No wonder the Boss needed us to come and get rid of you two traitors."

"Again with the devil-fruits..." muttered Mr. 6 to himself. "And since when did _you_ have a devil-fruit?" he continued, turning to Mr. 8. "And why are those two trying to kill you?"

Mr. 8 only remained silent.

"You really don't know anything do you, Mr. 6?" laughed Miss Valentine, in a manner that made one think of a hyena. "Even here we've heard the rumours that one of the guardians of certain sandy kingdom possesses a devil-fruit that allows flight."

Mr. 5 pulled out a revolver, and began blowing into the chambers. "I guess that would be you, Pell the Falcon? The bodyguard of the Princess Nefertari Vivi... or should I say, Miss Mother's Day?"

Both girl and man still remained silent.

"...pretty good work infiltrating the Baroque Works. Too bad the boss has ordered that you never be allowed to leave. We'll have a couple of graves ready for you in the cactus hill..." Mr. 5 pointed the muzzle of his gun at the two as he said this.

Mr. 8, or whoever he really was, finally broke the silence, now that it was clear that it would no longer protect them.

"Tch. They know everything! Vivi-sama, please escape, I will buy you time!"

"But Pell-" protested the former Miss Mother's Day.

"GO! You must get _that_ information home!"

The girl hesitated, then turned and fled.

"Our orders were mostly to take care of the Falcon," said Mr. 5 to Mr. 6. "But Zero's going to hold you responsible for your partner, Six. You'd better go get her."

"I only answer directly to Zero, so quit trying to order me around, scum."

"Or what?" mocked Mr. 5, secure in his lofty status one rank above the pirate hunter.

It was tempting fate. That was all the invitation Mr. 6 needed to start the fight by socking Mr. 5 across the jaw, really.

* * *

"What's going on outside?" Bonney threw down the plate of linguine with a pang of regret and ran for the door. She wasn't the only one. The occupants of the hall in which the eating contest was being held had also abandoned their plates and were also running for the windows and doors.

From her point of view, she saw a sight that immediately spelled O-H-C-R-A-P. The mayor of the town was in the middle of fighting another man who was wearing shades and a long red coat. But the thing that really caught her attention was the fact that he was making things explode, and that the mayor had turned into a giant bird-like man.

"COOL! I didn't know the dress-ossan could turn into a bird!" Luffy had come along aside her, and was watching the fight with eyes shining. His rubber hands were still stretching and emptying the plates of food into his mouth while he did this. For a moment Bonney felt envious of his devil-fruit ability.

"Why are you lot just standing there and watching?" the explosion-man suddenly turned and yelled at the assembled townsmen, as he fended off an attack from another man who looked suspiciously familiar.

Bonney squinted. And then her eyes widened in shock. That man looked a lot like the green-haired bounty hunter from Loguetown. Had he come after them?

"What are you waiting for? You call yourself bounty hunters? Mr. 6 and Mr. 8 are traitors! Get them, or you'll have to answer to the Boss!" The other combatant, a woman with an extremely unstylish bucket-hat (from Bonney's point of view, anyway), was screeching at the assembled mass, who seemed to rather reluctant to get involved.

"Bounty hunters?" The prickly feeling that had been creeping up Bonney's spine exploded into fear. Her bad feeling had been right on the money after all.

The sensible thing to do would be to use this opportunity, while the bounty-hunters were fighting to amongst themselves, to escape.

"Luffy, we need to get away now-"

Naturally, it didn't happen because of Luffy.

As was expected, Luffy was already on the verge of charging into the fray. "Hey, they're trying to kill the dress-ossan!" he said in a rage. "We gotta help! The dress-ossan gave us food and was nice to us!" Without further ado, he rushed in.

"YOU BAKA CAPTAIN! One: we're pirates, not heroes! Two: they are all bounty hunters. Three: can't you tell this whole town set a trap for us?"

She might as well have just yelled at the wall, for all the good it did.

___Whomever we recruit as the third member of the crew-__,_ Bonney decided as she followed her captain's lead,_ -____had better damn well be freakishly intelligent to make up for our glorious leader's mental shortcomings._

Fortunately, the bounty hunters were all too busy fighting each other to pay any serious attention to them. At least, until Luffy did what he was best at doing after eating and fighting- attracting unwanted attention. "Hey, dress-ossan!" Luffy hollered, "do you need some help?"

"Help?" said the mayor, without missing a beat as he fought off a sword-wielding bounty-hunter who was dressed as a nun.

"Luffy wait- don't you see who's with him?" Bonney had caught up and now saw too well that was indeed the Pirate Hunter Zoro who was fighting alongside the mayor, which meant they were probably in cahoots when it came to hunting her and Luffy. She braced herself and prepared to turn the both of them into babies.

And was once again left speechless as the duo paid both of them no further attention, and continued fighting the other bounty-hunters. For a moment Bonney felt a bit insulted. She hated being hunted for her bounty, but now that it was being disregarded, she suddenly felt as though she'd lost some of her worth.

Which was stupid now that she thought about it. She chalked it up to having spent too much time together with Luffy.

Speaking of Luffy, he was watching the fight with some appreciation. "Actually, I guess dress-ossan is pretty strong. I guess he'll be okay after all."

"Yes. Yes. Let's just get away from this island as fast as we can, Luffy."

"If it is help you offer, I do have a request..." said the mayor suddenly, as if an idea had just struck him.

Five minutes later, Bonney couldn't help but wonder why even she'd agreed to the request or why Luffy was so damned happy about the whole damned thing.

* * *

While the combination of Mr. 5's explosive devil-fruit and Miss Valentine's density manipulation fruit might have been sufficient to take care of the threat of the falcon devil-fruit user, having Mr. 6 involved in the brawl made it an entirely different story. Even after the majority of the agents joined in (some apologising as they did so) on the orders of the two officer agents, the tide of the battle never wavered away from the two swordsmen's favour.

Miss Valentine was having a bad time of it. Her entire fighting style had been centered around staying out of her opponent's reach while floating above the air. But tonight it had hit a snag: to be able to float required her to decrease her density, which had the unfortunate side-effect of making her vulnerable to the flying-man's attacks. But increasing her density meant she was grounded and far too heavy to move, much less attack.

Normally her partner's ability would have been enough to cover her, but Mr. 5 was learning the hard way that just because he was one rank above Mr. 6 didn't mean that he was one rank above in terms of power. Suddenly, he understood why Mr. 0 valued Mr. 6's skill. The man was a demon with those swords of his, and even a devil-fruit was scant advantage when you couldn't _hit_ that impossibly fleet swordman who was always pressing an attack so there was no time to gather himself and formulate a counter-strategy.

Saying that the lightning-swift warrior and the deadly swordsman made short work of the two should suffice. It wasn't long before Ms. Valentine was sent crashing to the ground, having been kicked out of the sky by the former Mr. 8. Mr. 6 on the other hand, had already finished and was bemoaning the fact that he had splattered some of Mr. 5's blood on his haramaki.

"You weren't this strong the last time I fought you," the pirate-hunter commented as the falcon-man landed on _terra firma_ and morphed back into his human form. He had lost his hood sometime during the fight and Mr. 6 could see now that the man had short dark hair, a pale complexion, and an expression that reminded one of the sparrowhawks that had sometimes perched on the giant tree outside his master's dojo.

"I held back," replied former Mr. 8, or rather, Pell the Falcon. "If I had used my devil-fruit powers they would have immediately known who I was."

"Figures. We're going to have to have a rematch later." A bloodthirsty grin reappeared on the swordmaster's face.

Pell gave a curt nod. "I will fight you as much as you want after all this is over. But not now."

"Yeah, I suppose we should go find her."

"We?" The other swordsman raised his eyebrow suspiciously at this. "You wish to help the princess accomplish her mission?"

"I don't care if she's a princess or whatever, but she's still my partner, and the least annoying one I ever had. I'm on her side for now."

If there was one thing Mr. 8 did know about Roronoa Zoro, it was that he was as honest and straightforward as they came. Too honest and straightforward to practise subterfuge, in fact. Which was why despite his insane strength, there had been a limit to how high he could rise in the Baroque Works, and why he was not an officer agent.

"Though I should warn you, Falcon-man... if Zero shows up and orders me to kill you now, before all this is done, I still have to do as he says until I've beaten him in a duel. I've given my word."

"I will keep that in mind," said the former leader of Whiskey Peak as he transformed into a giant falcon. "Just in case we need to have that rematch sooner than we think."

* * *

Over at the harbour of Whiskey Peak, against the dramatic backdrop of explosions and fighting, Bonney and the bounty-hunter woman from Whiskey Peak were staring down at each other in mutual recognition. Prior to the two pirates' arrival, the fleeing fugitive had been in quite a state of distress, having discovered that her own ship had been sabotaged and set adrift. It was still visible in the distance, drifting about in the harbour.

"You?"

"YOU!"

"Eh, who's she?"

"Back off!" The girl spun around a pair of jewelled slashers. "Just leave me alone!"

"You're the one the mayor wants us to help?" Bonney couldn't believe her eyes.

"Help?"

"Yeah, your friend said we were to give you a lift to some place called Alabaster-"

"-Alabasta," the girl corrected. "And don't think I'd fall for such a trick!"

"He said to show you this as a token of trust," Bonney continued, showing her a long necklace that comprised of interlinked gold medallions.

"That's... Pell's!" said the girl, recognizing it.

"So that was the bird-ossan's name?" said Luffy. "Cool. Anyway, he says he wants you to travel to Alabasta with our pirate ship."

"Yeah, said something about using us as a camouflage."

"And you're willing to do this?" the girl said slowly, still not quite believing them.

"What, do we look like a ferry service? We'll be expecting a nice reward after this, you know? I'll give you a clue. We're pirates. We like treasure... Princess Vivi." Bonney was a shrewd bargainer.

The girl sighed. "I cannot promise you too much, but I give my word you will be reimbursed once we get to Alabasta and things are settled."

"Good enough."

"Welcome aboard!" grinned Luffy. "She's Bonney, the cook, and I'm the captain, Luffy! Hey bounty-hunter-chan... do you know if I have a bounty yet?"

"My name is _Vivi_. And a bounty for you... erm... not that I know of. Sorry?"

Luffy went off into another sulk at this. Bonney simply grinned, put the necklace of gold medallions around her neck, and hustled to get the _Going Merry_ cast off.

* * *

"Damn..." Mr. 5 groaned from his crumpled position from the bottom of the crater he and Ms. Valentine had been unceremoniously been tossed into. "I can't believe we lost to those two."

"What are we going to do, Mr. 5? We've failed Zero, the Unluckies are going to get us-"

"We haven't failed Zero yet," Mr. 5 gritted his teeth as he crawled to his feet. "One thing those two don't know, some of my explosions can be delayed... and detonated remotely."

"What good does that do, Mr. 5? They've gotten away!"

Mr. 5 fingered the large gash he had received on his front. It was bleeding profusely. "When that bastard cut me down, my blood got on his blades and clothes. And I did just tell you I can choose to detonate my explosions remotely, didn't I?"

* * *

"Wait! Wait! It's Pell!" The _Going Merry_ had barely started moving when her new passenger's cry brought things to a standstill. "He's caught up, and Mr. 6's with him!"

At this, Vivi pointed at the approaching white figure. Her face was filled with relief and joy, while Bonney's was filled with apprehension. She was once again remembering that she had a 50 million bounty, and that swordsman did have an axe to grind for what she had done to him in Loguetown.

But the smile was immediately wiped off Vivi's face as the next moment, just as the two neared the _Going Merry _(waving frantically for them to stop), two very horrible things happened.

One, the drifting boat that had been Vivi's exploded, the shockwave knocking down everyone who had been standing on the deck of the ___Going Merry__._

Two, a second explosion, smaller but far deadlier, suddenly enveloped both Pell the Falcon and Mr. 6, who was hitching a ride on his back. As the dust cleared, Vivi could see their charred bodies plunge from the sky into the dark waters of the harbour below.

Vivi screamed many things right after that, but it was such a mess of horrified gibberish that neither Bonney nor Luffy could make her out, other than something about diving into the water to save the two. But the princess never got the chance to mount a rescue.

"An admirable sentiment, Miss Mother's Day. But honestly, I would suggest you worry about yourself right now."

Everyone on board froze at the unfamiliar voice. Too late they looked back, only to see the two intruders emerge from the hidden shadows of the little vessel. One was a woman with a brimmed cowboy hat, a serene expression and hair that was almost invisible in the darkness. The other was a tall, gingery man who was clad in black leather and a rather distinctive bicorne. A dark cape with red inner lining completed his look.

"Who's that?" Bonney whispered to the princess as her bad feeling was once again proven right.

Vivi's eyes had taken on a haunted look.

"It's... Boss Zero."

* * *

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

**Footnotes:**

**[1] * Sanji's emergency ration stash = **This was actually a suggestion of Setsuka510's, who mentioned that Sanji would know the two of them well enough that he'd plan ahead accordingly. Thanks for letting me use it, Setsuka!

* * *

**Thanks to everyone who favourited/communitied the story and especially those who reviewed. Your feedback is always valued, as they let me know what works and what doesn't, and on occasion your comments and suggestions give me the most excellent ideas. And while I can't promise to use all of them, knowing what you look forward to seeing does mean I can keep an eye out for occasions to put them in the fic.**

**Also, special thanks need to go to my beta, callosum, who does so much that she really should be called my editor instead of my beta. **

**Anyway, see you all next chapter! (Oh, and scroll down for the Q and A!)**

* * *

**archsage150 ( 2011-04-13 . chapter 3 ): I wonder though, something I just recently thought of, but Capone allows for people to live inside his fortress like body, so I'm curios if there will be any extra characters in the crew that are directly under Capone's command unless Luffy says otherwise?**

A: Well the original plan was to only have eleven crewmembers (hence the title of the fic), so at the present, I haven't planned for additional crewmembers other than the Supernova Eleven.

* * *

**Sorakage Sama (2011-04-13 . chapter 3) Just out of curiosity, ae we going to see more of Nami, and is she going to actively oppose Luffy like her big brother? That would make for an interesting sight.**

A: I think it will be safe to say we will indeed be seeing more of Marine!Nami ;)

* * *

**Aoi24 (2011-04-13 . chapter 3): I think the elseworlds element is coming along nicely. C: It's still recognisably One Piece but sufficiently different. :3**

A: Thanks! "The Supernova Eleven" is something of a repository for all my other AU ideas. Instead of starting multiple fanfic projects that I will never finish, I got the idea to incorporate all of them in the same AU instead. It's ridiculously fun trying to make all the pieces fit together with the Supernovas as the backbone.

* * *

**Ladon's Avatar (2011-04-13 . chapter 3): What will happen to Robin if she doesn't join Luffy?**

A: Good question. I intend to explore this in the later chapters, so I hope that you won't mind if I keep mum about this for fear of spoiling the story.

* * *

**animefan29 (2011-04-13 . chapter 3): So next chapter they'll be meeting up with Mr. 0, that's Drake right?**

A: I figured that you all will have guessed it already, but now that it's been revealed this chapter... yep ^_^

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**Shadowzero789 (2011-04-13 . chapter 3): I am a bit confused with the Nami scene, she's eight years old in this story?**

A: Oh, sorry if it wasn't clear... she was eight years old when Smoker rescued her, and that happened eight years ago, so she's sixteen now. Hope that clears things up!

* * *

**Anzer'ke (2011-04-13 . chapter 3): I do still have a question, namely how is Zoro still Mr. 6 with how strong he is? I'm pretty curious if the other officer agents are still the same. **

A: Mr. 6 is definitely stronger than some of the officer agents, but the reason why he never became an officer agent is because of the loyalty factor. He has no loyalty to Baroque Works, and only his word of honour keeps him working for Mr. 0, and Mr. 0 knows it.

* * *

**Riah-chan (2011-04-13 . chapter 3): Marine Nami sounds awesome and she and Tashigi should be bff's.**

A: Hm... now that's an idea...

* * *

**SilverRainFalls (2011-04-18 . chapter 3): Does this mean that Zoro and Vivi are joining Luffy and Bonney at Whiskey Peak? And also, if Robin is still Ms. All-Sunday, does this mean Drake won't join Luffy in the Arabasta arc?**

A: * Looks over the events of the chapter * Well... uh... I guess this will all be answered in the later chapters? Although you were right about Vivi ;)

* * *

**ozmose1991 (2011-04-23 . chapter 3) I'm excited to see where this story is going to go. I'm also excited to see how Luffy will keep his strength on par with the rest of his crew.**

A: Thanks for bringing that up. Yes, there will definitely be some differences, because the alternate experiences Luffy has here means he develops differently.

* * *

**Majin Hentai X (2011-04-30 . chapter 3): So Chopper's with Law and Drake is Mr.0 and I'm guessing crocodile is still running Baroque works just using it as even more of a cat's paw unless Doflamingo is doing it instead.**

A: Cat's paw... I like that phrase. I might borrow that if you don't mind.

* * *

**AzerBlazer (2011-05-25 . chapter 3): I love this so much! Can't wait for the rest of the crew to join! Especially Kidd, I want to see the blow to his ego the serve under someone XDD**

A: Kidd will indeed be quite a troublesome addition, but all the more fun for that. XD

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**_And that's all folks! Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!_**


	5. The Princess and Her Priorities

_**A/N: This update took slightly longer than usual because I'm picky and wouldn't send the thing to my beta, callosum, until I was happy with it. That's the excuse I am using :p**_

**_By the way, congratulations to Slayer End for writing the 100__th__ review for this story! I am greatly humbled and appreciative of all of you who took the time to leave me reviews. Know that while I am already happy just knowing people read and enjoy this story, I do greatly treasure your feedback as it helps me towards my goal of becoming a better writer, so don't stop!_**

_**My thanks to all of you who have reviewed, favourited, recommended to others and left criticism. I truly appreciate your support :)**_

* * *

**The Supernova Eleven**

_**Chapter 5: The Princess and Her Priorities**_

___Betaed by: callosum_

* * *

_**Alubarna Palace, Alabasta. Several years ago...**_

The sound of the sharp slap rang through the air. Followed by silence, and then gasps of horror from all who had witnessed the unthinkable act.

Vivi could feel the burning sting from where Pell had slapped her. Her cheek smarted and throbbed, and for a girl who had never received any form of corporal punishment in her privileged life, the sensation of pain was a completely new one. But that wasn't what hurt her the most. Pell, her cool friend whom she adored – had raised his voice and his hand against her. His eyes, which had never looked at her with anything but fondness and respect before, had been so angry, so fierce.

So _disappointed _in her.

"Pell! How dare you lay a hand on the princess!" A very furious Igaram had suddenly appeared out of nowhere was spitting out each word with effort. "You're finished! Fired! If the king sees fit, exe-"

"Igaram, wait!" Her father, ever the voice of reason, had stopped the captain of the Royal Guard's ranting rage.

It didn't matter that she was the princess and he was but one of her guardians. To her, Pell was – no, _had been_ – a friend, and now he surely would no longer be. Not after what had happened. And she had only snuck into the gunpowder room to try and make some fireworks because she'd wanted to celebrate the day of his joining the guard.

Then his voice, gentler in tone now, startled her out of her sniffling. "Vivi, if you had been hurt just now, I don't know what I would have done."

She didn't know what to say to this. She was a little girl. So she did what most little girls did in such a situation: she cried and ran off.

Pell would have come after her, but even as she ran, she could hear Igaram's voice call after him.

"Not so fast, Pell! We are still going to have to discuss what just happened. Even with mitigating circumstances, laying a hand on the princess is a serious offence, and there will have to be consequences..."

* * *

"Y-you're not going to be around anymore?" Vivi couldn't hide the tremble in her voice. It was all she could do to hold on to Carue for support. She'd been so happy to see Pell at the window. And then he had broken the bad news to her.

Pell's smile was patient, if a little strained. "The King has very kindly insisted that since I meant well, I was not to be punished. But Igaram is right, I overstepped my bounds as your protector. I have been assigned a different role now... still as part of the Royal Guard, but no longer as your guardian. My new position will be in one of the remote outposts, far away from Alubarna."

"But-"

"Vivi, I came to say goodbye. And to ask for your forgiveness."

"If I forgive you, does that mean you won't have to go away?"

"I'm afraid I will still have to-"

"But P-Pell, it's MY fault! I-I was the one who kept going and doing things I shouldn't have and that's why you got angry and slapped me – Pell, can't you just say sorry and make things the same as they were before?"

"Nothing ever goes back to how it was before, little Vivi," he said gently, patting her on the head, triggering another round of tears. "But fear not, I'm sure we'll see each other again."

"It's not f-fair! You're my friend! I wanted to do so many things with you! And you promised that when I was old enough so my father wouldn't say no, you'd take me for a flight and now you never will have the chance! And... and... how can I forgive you for just accepting to going away like that?"

"Princess Vivi-"

"It's just a stupid thing that happened, and now everything's changed!"

The royal guardian knelt before the princess and put his hands on her shoulders, willing her to calm down. "Vivi, listen to me. What I did wasn't right. Even if it was because I was worried about you, to physically hit your royal person before everyone was unforgivable. I set a very bad example, and if I were allowed to get away with it, it would be a setting a very bad precedent for the rest of the country."

"Well, I don't think it's unforgivable. _I'd _forgive you."

He smiled at her. "Then that puts my heart at rest. I couldn't care less what others think of me, but I would do anything to gain your forgiveness."

"Then... I want to go for a flight!" Vivi said suddenly, realising that it would probably be her only chance of doing so. "Can we? Just this one time before you leave?"

"Princess Vivi..." Pell's voice was suddenly tense again. The two of them knew it was dicing with danger to do this, because her father had expressly forbidden this very thing.

"You said _anything_..." she cajoled, tears still in her eyes. She could feel Pell's resistance crumble.

"Well, I suppose if we keep it secret..."

Suddenly Vivi, young as she was, had a realisation that it was her disregard for rules that was constantly getting Pell in trouble. And there she was again, putting him at risk just for her own selfish desires.

"Wait- no... we shouldn't," Vivi blurted out before she even thought any further. "That's what got you in this trouble in the first place, wasn't it?"

She knew that she had made the right move, because Pell looked visibly relieved at this.

"You have gained wisdom, Princess Vivi. I am sorry I will not be able to fulfill this request of yours. But I promise you, the next time you ask something of me, I will not refuse it, no matter what it may be."

"Promise?" She held out her pinkie finger.*

"I promise," he vowed as he met it with his own.

* * *

_**Several years later...**_

"But you don't know who the mastermind behind that organisation is, do you, Igaram?" Vivi's voice was gentle but determined.

She was fourteen and already she considered the weight of the country, or at least some of it, hers to bear. The years had instilled a sense of responsibility upon her. Her blithe and carefree childhood was now something of the past. With her status came expectations, and as she had learnt the hard way, everything she did had a consequence. _Everything_.

Even her doing nothing had them too.

So when that unseen hand had started orchestrating the kingdom against its royal family, she could not just sit and watch as the people's love for her father was manipulated into hatred, and the good name of the house of Nefertari besmirched.

The captain of the Royal Guard spoke of a criminal organisation that went by the name of Baroque Works. On the surface they hadn't seemed such a threat, merely bounty hunters and mercenaries, but there was a very organized and cunning hand controlling their actions. It was when he got to this point when he froze and stopped.

"What if we sent people to infiltrate-" Vivi was already formulating her plan.

"I have tried and they have failed. But do not worry yourself about this, Vivi-sama... I've said too much."

She could guess what he was thinking:

_How had he let the princess wheedle that much information out of him? Now she was getting such... dangerous ideas in her head._

To the people of the palace, as much as they loved her, and as much as she loved them, she was still, and would always be seen, as the princess first and foremost. A symbol to be protected, a figure for the future.

But they never saw her as a girl willing to give her all to save the country that she loved.

"Igaram, do you know what I'm thinking?"

"Vivi-sama! No! I- I must go!"

Igaram positively fled the room. He knew her persuasiveness, and the only way to keep from being swayed to her will was to put some distance between them.

Vivi clenched her fists. Igaram was too loyal to her father, and probably too cautious to take a gamble on her life.

But she had already obtained the lead she needed, and she still had an ace up her sleeve.

* * *

"Princess Vivi!"

"Pell! You got my message!" Vivi flung herself in joy at the much-missed silhouette of the falcon-man as he entered her room through the window. Although they regularly exchanged letters, it had been years since they last set eyes on each other.

"Yes, I came at once- my word, Vivi, you've really grown! But what is this about?"

There was no point in small talk, and they had precious little time before they were discovered, so Vivi got straight to the point.

"Pell, do you remember that promise you made me, all those years ago?"

"Ye-es," he said slowly, as if not liking where the conversation was already going.

"The time has come for me to call upon that promise."

* * *

"Are you sure about this? It's not too late to turn back," Pell said softly to Vivi. She was on Pell's back, and so swift was his flight, Alubarna Palace had already disappeared into the distance behind them.

It was nothing like how she imagined her first flight on Pell's back would be. The desert was too dark below, the skies too empty, the wind too loud and Pell too worried and tense. Part of her wanted to turn back. It felt like a betrayal of everyone who had ever cared for her. But this was for the salvation of Alabasta, so she steeled her resolve, gripped on tighter to Pell's feathers and resolutely vowed to continue.

"There's no turning back now. We must do this and bring the light back to Alabasta."

* * *

_**One year later...**_

"Miss Wednesday. Congratulations on your promotion. Henceforth you shall be known as Miss Monday, and I will be your new partner."

Vivi tried not to stare at Mr. 8, but it was for a different reason than what the other watching Baroque Works agents might have supposed. The mysterious Mr. 8 rarely showed his face. In fact, he wore a hood that concealed it most of the time, but she recognised the way he stood, the slope of his shoulders and the soft, steely voice.

Mr. 9 nudged her and whispered, "Don't stare at Mr. 8 like that, he's _scary_."

"That will be enough, Mr. 9. Please proceed to getting acquainted with _your_ new partner."

"Y-yes sir," Mr. 9 was more than happy to skedaddle.

After Mr. 9 left and the newly-paired partners were left alone, Mr. 8 removed his hood and revealed his face to her. Even though she knew it was Pell, Vivi was startled, but that was because she had never seen Pell's face without his face paint before. Without it, he looked extremely different, almost unrecognisable from his public image. It must have been very handy for going undercover. She herself had had to rely on the inverse. With enough skill, copious amounts of make-up could make a young girl look far older than she was.

"It's been a while since we last met," Pell said, smiling slightly. For the sake of their respective covers, he left her title unspoken, but her mind filled it in for her anyway. "_Princess_."

Vivi smiled back. They had both infiltrated Baroque Works separately, but somehow, by some fortunate coincidence, they had ended up being assigned as each other's partners anyway. The two of them would quickly move on to become the most effective frontier-agent partnership in the history of Baroque Works.

Unfortunately, it drew unwanted attention from a different quarter.

* * *

_**Several months later...**_

"I've heard your reasons, Eight. But the fact remains, that Miss Monday here is the most efficient female frontier-agent in the ranks and she should be moved up accordingly to be Mr. 6's partner." Boss Zero's was calm and he seem completely unperturbed by the objections of the distressed frontier-agent.

It was the first time Vivi had laid eyes on the head of Baroque Works, and truth be told, he hadn't been what she had expected at all. He did things in a very open and direct manner that surprised her. In a rather ironic way he reminded her of Pell, reserved and quiet, but straight-forward and devastatingly competent.

In her experience, men of this type preferred clean battle to underhanded assassination. She couldn't put her finger on why, but the idea of someone like him secretly plotting to overthrow Alabasta from the shadows seemed to her rather... off.

"However, I do recognise that Miss Monday's effectiveness is partially due to the excellent teamwork the both of you have. I will give your partnership a chance to continue - Six!"

Mr. 6, who had been standing to one side, looking distinctly uninterested in the discussion, now stepped forward. Vivi did not like his confident swagger, the surplus of swords at his side (why would anyone need so many?) and his overly young appearance. Most of all, she did not like the cold aura of menace that emanated from him. They'd all heard the rumours about this man: no loyalty to the organization, only the boss. By all accounts, his last two partners had been lucky to have survived working with him, given his reported treatment of them before he had tired of them and sent them packing. This was also the main reason Pell was objecting to her being paired with Mr. 6.

In truth, Vivi was glad that Pell had stood up for her. She was afraid of that man.

"What do you want now, Zero?" The tone was insolent.

"If I recall, you like challenges. Mr. 8 here is a swordsman," At this, Mr. 6's eyes suddenly gleamed in interest. "The both of you are to fight. For the title of Mr. 6."

Pell drew his sword. "In that case, I won't lose."

"Funny," said incumbent Mr. 6, tying a black bandanna over his head and drawing all three of his swords. "That's my line."

* * *

Vivi clamped her hand over her mouth. She would not give her cover away by crying or begging them to stop. She_ would not._

She had never been an expert at swordsmanship but even she could tell that Mr. 6, despite being so much younger than the experienced Pell, was frighteningly skilled. He was so skilled he was going to be able to _kill _Pell.

It wasn't fair. She was very sure that under any other circumstances, Pell could have beaten this Mr. 6. The problem was, while Pell was skilled with the sword, he didn't focus on it exclusively like Mr. 6 obviously did, and his fighting style hinged a lot on his devil-fruit.

In _this _battle, where he had to hold back and not use his devil-fruit to keep his cover, he was at an overwhelming disadvantage. He'd already taken two serious strikes from Mr. 6 and still he'd refused to stay down. Pell was going to die for Alabasta and no one else except her would ever know or appreciate it.

There was only one thing to do.

"Boss Zero!" The man's piercing gaze turned from the fight to focus on her.

She tried to remember the lessons of diplomacy that had been instilled in her. The key to getting a favourable outcome in any situation was to think of a solution that benefited both parties.

"There is no need for the Baroque Works to lose two skilled agents!" she spoke up. "I'm more than willing to be Mr. 6's partner."

"Indeed...?" She could tell that the man was appraising her carefully as he signalled for the fight to be halted.

She turned to Pell and Mr. 6, both of whom were had been injured, but the former the most seriously.

"Mr. 8, while I greatly valued my partnership with you, it's time to move on."

_Don't die like this for me, _her eyes pleaded with Pell.

For a moment there was silence as they exchanged gazes.

"Very well," Mr. 8 said at last, dropping his sword.

"Are you yielding, Eight?" Mr. 6 seemed outraged at this.

"Yes, I am," said Pell through gritted teeth.

Behind him, his bloodthirsty opponent sheathed his swords in contempt and disgust as Mr. 0 declared the match over.

* * *

"So you and Eight are involved?" Mr. 6 asked her out of the blue one day after she had been assigned to him.

Vivi jumped. That was the last question that she had expected from someone as taciturn and unsociable as Mr. 6.

"N-no such thing. He's just a very good partner that's all... always watched out for me when I worked with him."

"Why is that important to you?" asked that swordsman bluntly.

"Why wouldn't it be? That's what a partner is for!" Vivi couldn't help herself. Mr. 6 was such an emotionless blockhead!

"Well, if he was that great a partner, he should have made sure you were strong enough to protect yourself. You know, instead of just protecting you and letting you stay a weakling."

Her anger flared despite herself. "I'm not a weakling!" she protested. "I can fight too, you know!"

"Then fight me."

"_What?"_

Fearfully, Vivi couldn't help but wonder if this was the point Mr. 6's last two partners had met the end of their Baroque Works careers.

* * *

"You're not bad, but you're not good," Mr. 6 commented after their fight was over. He had utterly destroyed her Peacock Slashers, although he had taken care not to hurt her physically. There had been no need to, he had defeated her too easily.

"So what now? Are you going to return to to Zero and ask for a new partner again?" she asked bitterly.

"Nah. See you back here tomorrow for round two."

"Round _two_?" _Wasn't he satisfied with beating her once already?_

"Like I said, you're not too bad. The other two were way worse."

"But why _again_?"

"Because being good at fighting takes practice. Don't you want to become stronger? "

The idea stunned her. She'd reconciled herself to the fact that she wasn't much of a fighter and here was this man telling her that all she needed was more practice.

"Of course I do!"

"Then you're going to have to train with me every day. And if you're going to continue being my partner until I defeat Boss Zero, then you'd better get stronger quick. I'm not having someone weak drag me down, Miss Mother's Day."

With this, he left for his afternoon nap, with Vivi gazing after him with a sense of newfound respect.

* * *

Months later, Vivi stared in shock at the pirate crew she had single-handedly defeated. Their captain had been worth almost 1 million beli.

"Told you you could do it," said Mr. 6, matter-of-factly, as they both went to collect the bounty.

* * *

_**Back to the present...**_

As the dark waters swallowed the two men who had been so much of her life, Vivi was faced with one of the hardest decisions in her life.

Her first option: jump into the water and attempt to rescue Pell and Six, leaving the two pirates to be slaughtered by Mr. 0 and Miss All-Sunday.

But what good would that do? Even if she could find them both, they would be sitting ducks in the water and Baroque Works would eventually take them prisoner.

Her other option was to believe in the two pirates' strength and try, as futile as it sounded, to defeat or drive off the two Baroque Works bosses.

Vivi knew her chances weren't good, but still, there was some hope at least. The girl with pink hair - Bonney, she knew, had a fifty million beli bounty. Surely she was powerful? After all, Mr. 6 could almost fight on par with Mr. 0 if it wasn't for the latter's devil-fruit, and back in Loguetown, Bonney's devil-fruit ability had taken out Mr. 6 and herself with very little effort.

And if someone with a bounty that high was willing to follow someone else instead of being the captain herself, surely that meant her captain Luffy, was even more powerful. Vivi had quickly learnt from her stint as a bounty hunter that the captain of a pirate crew was almost always its most powerful fighter as well.

It was a hard choice, but for the sake of Alabasta, she couldn't afford to fail, no matter what the losses. So with a breaking heart and tears in her eyes, Vivi turned her back on her two long-time comrades, and faced the two sinister figures who had come for her.

* * *

The owners of the _Going Merry _were not amused.

"WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON OUR SHIP?"

The only response to the angry yells of captain and cook was the caped man turning to his companion, and conversationally commenting:

"Miss All Sunday, if that fool of a Five is still alive, we're going to have to have a word with him about ruining my duel with Six." There was a hint of irritation in Mr. 0 voice. "The order was not to make a move until the event was over."

"Indeed, Mr. 0," Miss All-Sunday agreed. "I shall send the Unluckies to administer some corrective action to him. If he survives."

"_If_ he survives, make sure he _doesn't_. We have no use for agents who can't follow orders."

"Noted," said the woman. "I suppose we'll have to find some replacements... perhaps that new -"

"STOP IGNORING US!" Both Luffy and Bonney exploded in annoyance.

"My, my... the natives are getting restless."

"Let's proceed with the matter at hand then, Mr. 0," said Ms. All-Sunday.

Her partner was already on it. "Miss Mother's Day... or should I just skip the alias and call you Princess Vivi now? Your Highness, while I admire your resourcefulness in discovering the identity of our esteemed benefactor, I'm afraid you've caused us quite a bit of trouble by doing so. You're going to have come with us."

"She's not going anywhere with you, Mr. Skanky Pants!"

There a stunned silence as both Baroque Works bosses took in Luffy's choice of insult.

"...s_kanky pants?" _Mr. 0, the much-feared boss of the criminal organisation repeated, as Miss All-Sunday broke out in a fit of involuntary laughing. This immediately earned her partner's ire.

"Oh don't you _start _on that now, Ms. All-Sunday."

"Well, I did tell you this before-"

"-do we have to do this now?" interrupted the boss, the irritation in his voice returning. Turning to Luffy, he asked, "Do you even _know_ what that word means?"

"No," admitted the boy, "but I heard some guys in Makino's bar use it before... so get lost, Mr. Skanky Pants!"

Despite the dire situation, even the two girls who were standing behind the straw-hatted pirate were biting their lips to keep from laughing as well.

"Regardless..." Mr. 0 began again, a little more venom in his voice this time, "Princess Vivi is going to have to come with us."

"And what if we say no?" Bonney ventured defiantly.

"Then we'll take her by force."

"And probably slaughter the both of you," Miss All-Sunday added cheerfully.

"After which we'll force the truth out of her. I'd rather not have to resort to that, but since we do not know the extent to which she has leaked information..."

"I don't know anything," Vivi said, her darting eyes betraying her bluff.

"My, my, my. Such poor memory..." Miss All-Sunday remarked shrewdly. "How foolish Mr. 8 was, having died for such important information only for his careless little princess to forget-"

"DON'T YOU DARE INSULT PELL YOU-"

A pair of arms sprouted out of the sides of Vivi's head and clamped over the girl's mouth. This was followed by a swarm of hands which rapidly rendered Bonney, Luffy and Vivi immobile.

"You should be more careful with your words, Princess," cut in Mr. 0, coldly. "You give too much away."

"Nothing personal, but I'm afraid you pirates were picked for a job most unsuitable for you. You won't be escorting the princess anywhere," Miss All-Sunday continued smoothly. The partnership of Zero and Miss All-Sunday appeared to even extend to taking turns with their speech.

A speech which was quickly derailed with an unexpected interruption.

"Bitch, _please_."

Bonney had not been given her bounty for being a damsel in distress. As creepy as the sight of dozens of hands holding down three prisoners was, it was nothing compared to when the hands began to shrivel...with age.

The hands weren't the only things affected. Miss All-Sunday's face turned pale as her inky-black hair turned white and her skin wrinkled. She fell to her knees, gasping as she was turned into an old woman.

"Well, thanks for making it easy for me," Bonney smirked as the three of them easily shrugged off the weakened hands. "Nice to have the enemy come to me for a change."

She got more than what she bargained for with that taunt. Mr. 0, after taking one look at the state of his partner, had already made a swift bee-line for Bonney, weapons at the ready.

He was intercepted by Luffy. "I'll be your opponent!" the rubber-boy declared.

"Not interested."

No one could actually pinpoint the moment when it happened, but in a blink of an eye, Mr. 0's movements changed. Luffy's fist only found empty air, and something terrifyingly swift that didn't feel human vaulted over him. It was swiftly followed by the sickening crunch of breaking bone and splintering wood.

The captain of the _Going __Merry_ turned around to see Bonney's crumpled body lying where it had been sent flying across the deck. The cause was obvious: the blow from Mr. 0's strange axe-mace had hit her so hard that she'd crashed into the wooden railing and broken it.

If Luffy had been more of the thinking type, he might have wondered why Bonney hadn't turned Mr. 0 into a baby or something similarly harmless. What he didn't know was, she had tried, which was why she hadn't dodged the blow. And what he should really have been wondering about was why it hadn't worked.

But Mr. 0 did not seem satisfied with the damage he had already done, and had continued advancing on the downed girl with a chilling, implacable look on his face. "If I kill you, that should be enough to reverse the effects of your devil fruit, shouldn't it?" he said calmly to Bonney as he brought his sword high up into the air.

"BONNEY!" The rubber-boy had rushed forward to rescue his nakama, but someone who was closer to Mr. 0 acted first.

"PEACOCK CATCHER!"

The strange jewelled weapons and their deceptively strong wires wrapped themselves around Mr. 0's sabre, and Vivi held the other ends firmly in her hand, successfully preventing him from executing Bonney. The former agent attempted to follow this up with a weapon-disarming yank, but this was where she failed, for although her training with Mr. 6 had given her above-average strength, Mr. 0, on the other hand, had a grip like a vice.

"Really, Miss Mother's Day?" said the man scornfully as he whipped the string weapons out of the girl's hands by smacking his axe-mace into the taut line. "You'll have to do better than that."

Vivi's offence had accomplished one thing though. She had bought Bonney time. Time enough for Luffy to come charging in to the rescue with a well-placed rubber-kick –

"Too slow!"

- which missed Mr. 0. But it did make the man dodge out of the way. Most importantly, his dodging moved him away from the vulnerable Bonney.

"You hurt my nakama!" Luffy's irises were contracted into little dots. "I won't forgive you!"

"_Forgive _me_? _Oh, grow up, _boy_." Mr. 0 did not seem impressed by the hostile intent the boy radiated. "Stupid things like that are only easy to say when you don't have to live up to them. You want to protect your nakama? You'd better have the strength to back it up."

"I'll kick your ass, Skanky Pants!"

"Infantile," replied Mr. 0, contemptuously stepping out of the path of the charging boy and allowing him to crash into the wall of the cabin. Almost immediately Luffy re-emerged from the mess of splintered wood, raining a flurry of blows on his opponent. None of which connected. Somehow, they were all blocked or evaded by Mr. 0.

"No skill whatsoever," commented the man as he quickly exploited a flaw in Luffy's offence to move in close with his axe-mace. The impact of the resulting blow would not have done much to hurt the rubber-boy, but the sharp blades on the end of the weapon certainly did.

"You have determination and guts," Mr. 0 said as he continued taking advantage of the opening to kick Luffy downwards, so hard that his rubber body bounced off the deck and into the air again – "and it might have been enough to carry you through in the East Blue, but out here in the Grand Line..." – without missing a beat, Mr. 0 followed up with another kick that sent the pirate captain flying...

...over the railings of the _Going Merry _and to his watery doom below.

"- it's nowhere near enough," Mr. 0 concluded.

"Luffy!" came the shriek from behind the victor as the boy's hapless form plunged into the water. Vivi had run to Bonney's aid while the fight between the two had been going on, and was now kneeling beside the injured girl with a look of horror on her face.

"As I said before... worry about yourself, Miss Mother's Day."

The cold, unfeeling tone in Mr. 0's voice, and the predatory way he stalked over towards them, both weapons ready, sent chills down the princess' spine, but Vivi did not budge from her position. In her hands she had her back-up weapon, the sharp-edged chain-belt she wore.

"Be smart and get out of the way princess, and you won't have to die like her." Vivi knew that by "her", of course he meant Bonney.

"It's me you wanted, wasn't it? W-well, leave her alone and come get me then!"

"All in good time," Mr. 0 continued his slow, frightening, advance across the deck. "All in good time..."

The advantage of the chain-whip class of weapons was that they moved remarkably fast. Vivi had long since learnt to use the speed to her advantage. But even before her weapon completed its arc to reach its target, Mr. 0, had somehow vaulted over her so fast she almost couldn't react in time.

A back-kick from mid-air, almost an afterthought, sent Vivi sprawling to the deck. Mr. 0 didn't even pause to see her fall, he'd already moved on to his objective.

By the time Vivi managed to recover from having the wind knocked out of her, Mr. 0 already had the Bonney by the throat, and the girl was struggling for breath.

"Age manipulation, was it?" Even as he said this, in the half-light, Vivi could see that his skin had changed in colour, and his form had become distinctly non-human.

"Why... won't my powers... work on you?" Bonney, injured as she was, was still desperately attempting to fight back, both hands clawing away at his firm grip.

"'That's the problem with the nature of your kind of devil-fruit powers. You rely on it working a certain way too much. Ponder about it in your afterlife."

He might have broken her neck then and there, but a couple of hands suddenly sprouted out of his elbows, and stopped him with a touch.

"That won't be necessary, Mr. 0. The effects of her devil-fruit have worn off."

It was as though a switch had been turned off. One moment, Mr. 0 had been a tranquil, inexorable force bent on murdering Bonney, whatever the cost. Next, on seeing that his partner had returned to normal, he gave an almost imperceptible nod and relaxed his hold on his victim so she could at least breathe.

"Still, she is too dangerous to be left alive."

"Let her go! I'll go with you! I won't resist! Just leave her alone!"

Both Baroque Works leaders turned to look at the begging princess.

"Whether we let her go or not is irrelevant. You _will _still end up coming with us," Mr. 0 stated.

"I'll – I'll make things difficult for you! I'll jump overboard! And I know the both of you can't swim..."

Mr. 0 looked singularly unimpressed with this threat. "With Miss All-Sunday's abilities, you won't even reach the wat-"

"We'll take that offer," Miss All-Sunday interrupted.

Mr. 0 gave her an odd look at this. But he also released Bonney, who slumped onto the deck.

"Very well then. We have your word that you won't resist and will come along willingly?"

The princess bit her lip and nodded, before turning to address the remaining pirate.

"Bonney-san, don't try and stop us. Sorry, but the situation has changed. You won't be getting your reward for getting _me _safely to Alabasta." Then the princess turned back and spoke to the two victors. "I'm ready to go as your prisoner."

There was no other sound but Bonney's pained breathing as the two escorted their newly-acquired captive to their vessel, a strange mounted thing that looked like a giant turtle.

"That was rather cruel," said Mr. 0 to Miss All-Sunday as the giant reptile left the _Going Merry _behind. "That pirate-girl wasn't going to live for much longer anyway."

"True, but our dear princess didn't know that. It was less hassle. Sometimes, hidden ways are best," Miss All-Sunday reminded him. "By the way, about the pants –"

"– I don't want to hear it." Mr. 0's voice was curt.

"Suit yourself," smirked Miss All-Sunday.

* * *

"Luffy, wake up! _Wake up_!"

Luffy did as the voice commanded, and opened his eyes before sitting up with a start. The first thing he did was to purge a steady stream of water from his rubber insides all over the deck of the _Going Merry_. The next thing he did after that, disoriented as he was, was look for the source of the voice.

"Bonney!"

She was sitting with her back against the side-railing, next to a messy tangle of ropes. Despite the relief on her face, her expression was mostly fixed in a pained grimace, and she had her hand to her side. If Luffy was a more observant type of person, he would have noticed her face was far too pale as well.

"Are you OK?"

Even though she was wounded, Bonney exploded in annoyance, "Do I _look _OK, Luffy? That bastard hit me with that mace thing... I don't know why my powers didn't work on him." At this she rattled the necklace of medallions the mayor had given her earlier. Some of them were now misshapen. "If it hadn't been for this thing deflecting some of the blades, I th-think he would have killed me."

"That stupid skanky pants!" Luffy vowed furiously. "I'm going to beat him up next time! Good thing you managed to get me out of the water, Bonney..."

"It wasn't me, Luffy. It was that pirate hunter."

"Pirate hunter?" Luffy repeated in puzzlement.

Bonney pointed at something behind him. The straw-hatted pirate turned around.

Prostrate on the deck, unconscious, was the green-haired swordsman. And a little bit further away, where he had been flung in a last desperate effort, was the equally unconscious mayor of Whiskey Peak. Both he and the pirate hunter appeared rather charred.

"That's-"

"Yeah. After Vivi surrendered and left with that Mr. 0 and that woman, I heard that pirate-hunter call for a rope. I managed to toss a line over the side. I don't know how he survived that explosion, much less rescue and throw you two hammers up here, but he collapsed after he climbed on board."

"Wow! He's really strong!"

"Strong or not, those two are going to die if we don't do something!"

"It's OK, we'll just find a doctor –" There was a pause as something else she had said registered. "WHAT? Vivi went with Skanky Pants and the Hand-Woman? We need to go get her back!"

"No, we can't!"

"We have to!"

"I said we can't! We can't beat those two!"

"I don't care! We promised Bird-ossan to take her home safely –"

"Luffy, listen! She said our agreement's changed now. She's not important anymore! _This _is!"

At this, Bonney took out two objects that had been hidden under her hat. The princess had slipped them to her earlier while Mr. 0 had been preoccupied with Luffy.

The first was what looked like a sealed letter.

"She said that no matter what happens, we have to deliver this dispatch for her."

The second was an eternal pose. On its wooden base was carved a single word.

"Alabasta."

* * *

The days that followed were the hardest the two Straw-Hats had ever experienced. Neither the falcon-mayor-man nor the pirate hunter regained consciousness, although both continued to cling on to life with a tenacity that was surprising.

Despite Bonney's initial insistence that her injuries weren't serious, it soon proved to be untrue as, with each hour that passed, the pain only seemed to worsen. Bonney's deteriorating condition hampered her ability to help sail the ship, which meant that Luffy had to take up the slack, with varying degrees of success. In addition, Luffy had to care for the wounded and keep the ship sailing for Alabasta. But no one could blame him if he gave more attention to Bonney than the other two passengers.

However, it wasn't until Bonney, who took being a pirate very seriously and scorned any display of weakness, finally collapsed and began crying because her wound was hurting so much, when Luffy stopped being worried and became absolutely terrified that he would lose the first and only member of his crew.

In another reality, by the time Straw-Hat Luffy had reached the Grand Line, he would have been much more powerful than he was now, having faced off against considerably more dangerous foes, amongst them a legendary fishman pirate and a logia devil-fruit user. But partially because his companion had been powerful, the ease with which he had avoided those fights meant that he was not as strong in physical combat as he should have been at this point.

Fortunately, it had the side effect of making him less reliant on brute-forcing his way through violence. To keep alive, he actually had to think and be resourceful.

Desperation is a good motivator. In any other reality, all bets would have been on Straw-Hat Luffy being absolutely incapable of sailing the _Going Merry _to the next island. The Straw-Hat Luffy of this reality, however, by a combination of luck, persistence, and an eternal pose, managed to sail the ship past Little Garden and to the next island on the Line.

This was where Luffy's luck came in. Because although he didn't know it as he stood on the deck of the little caravel, the dark landmass looming in the distance was once called Drum. And once upon a time, it had been famous for the one thing he needed the most at the moment.

* * *

Dalton, formerly captain of the guard of the Drum Kingdom, was busily engaged in the arduous task of retrieving a candied apple from a thieving Lapahn.

After the third try, the _de facto_ leader of the now-nameless kingdom gave it up as a bad job and left the rabbit-like creature to its spoils. He had plenty more in the basket, so it wasn't really much of a loss.

As he neared the copse of snow-covered pines, he clenched the basket handle between his teeth and transformed into his bison form. His target had always been skittish around humans, so it was more comfortable for all concerned if he stayed in his devil-fruit form.

"Chopper?" he called out to the wary creature, "I brought caramel apples."

The reindeer's blue nose was just visible, sticking out from behind the trunk of a venerable pine.

Cautiously Dalton shifted to hybrid form and set down the basket of caramel-coated fruit. "You can come out, there's no one to see."

Fortunately, not much coaxing was needed. The reindeer darted out of its hiding place and was soon making short work of the treats. Dalton smiled. That reindeer always did have a something of a sweet tooth.

This was a ritual that had taken place every day since the fall of Drum and Dalton's release from his cell. Things had definitely taken a turn for the better since Wapol's desertion. While Dalton might have hated the Blackbeard Pirates for ravaging the kingdom, at least the populace had been freed from that tyrant as a result.

It was not too bad a trade-off. Their losses had been heavy, but they had gained their independence, and other things, besides.

Unfortunately Dalton's musings were suddenly interrupted by Chopper suddenly pricking up his ears, sniffing the air, and bolting off in a panic. The bison-man twitched his ears in annoyance as his own senses confirmed the approach of a few of the villagers. This was quickly replaced with apprehension. Everyone knew that Dalton's morning sessions were not to be interrupted and the area where Chopper resided was to be left alone, so for the villagers to intrude meant that something urgent that needed his attention had occurred.

In his mind, there were only two things that could be the cause: pirates, or...

"Dalton-san!" the two fur-wrapped villagers were now visible over the snow-covered rise, and were panting from their efforts. "A ship has been sighted heading for the island!"

_Wapol has returned__, _the pessimistic part of him whispered, raising the cold spectre of an old fear.

But much to his relief, it turned out to be the other possibility.

"There's a Jolly Roger on the ship. We think they're pirates!"

Pirates were bad news of course. The people had not quite recovered from the nightmare that had been Blackbeard's rampage, but they were prepared this time. They could handle this.

"Do not panic," Dalton assured the villagers. "Remember our plan. Get the preparations ready, I will be along in a moment."

"Yes sir!"

"Oh, and send a messenger to the Doctor and let him know. He has asked to be kept informed... about such events."

The villager gave an involuntary shudder at this, but nodded. Unbidden, the voice of the island's only practising doctor reverberated in Dalton's head.

"_Your contingency plan for pirate raids, eh? Well, I'll be happy enough to provide treatment for any villagers who need it afterwards. But remember, Mr. Bison, I call dibs on what's left of the pirates after that. Dead OR alive."_

Not for the first time, Dalton reflected, as invaluable as the Doctor was to former Drum kingdom, how disturbing that man was.

Then he shook his head and trudged through the snow-drifts to prepare for the upcoming battle.

* * *

_**To Be Continued...**_

* * *

***[1] Pinkie! = Otohime inspired me on that one.**

_**Oh, since we had a beginning theme, I guess we should have an ending one too, eh? .com/watch?v=_lc2sUK37vI&feature=related**_

* * *

_**Q and A**_

* * *

**Mistress Wiggle (2011-05-31 . chapter 4): Will Ace be making an appearance? (Even if it is only to give Luffy the vivre card)**

**A: **Hm Ace... I already wrote an inclusion of Ace in my other fic (Though a Bird Can't Fly...) which also covered the Alabasta arc, and I don't like repeating the same scenes over, so if Ace makes an appearance, it will definitely be in a different way.

* * *

**Sorakage Sama (2011-05-31 . chapter 4): I get the feeling that Mr. 0, going to want to have words with Mr. 5 (if the bomb man makes it back at all) for blowing up his favorite sparring partner.**

**A:** Nicely predicted! Interestingly, you almost quoted Mr. 0's lines from the next chapter word-for-word...

* * *

**yumeniai (2011-05-31 . chapter 4): It was a surprise to see Pell instead of Igaram, though in a way this actually makes sense (though he is a bit too famous - wouldn't his dress and his face make him really obvious? The same could be said about Igaram and his hair though, I suppose ...)**

**Shadowzero789 (2011-05-31 . chapter 4): To me this seems strange since Pell is one of the commanders of the royal army thus he is much more noticeable to the public eye than Igaram who was the captain of the royal guard and could act with some discretion.**

**A: **My initial idea was that Pell took care to change his mode of dress and keep his face hooded, but thanks to your feedback I did take care to address this point a bit further this chapter ;)

* * *

**-Arashi-Storm-Guardian- (2011-05-31 . chapter 4): This whole new plot is interesting! :DD Thank goodness you didn't go into details about the whole going into the Grand Line thing, cuz lots of stories have been doing that, and I think I can memorize everything already haha~**

**A:** Yes I do find it tiresome to read fics that go through the same identical scenario as canon over and over again. I mean, I can understand why they do that but if I have to read one more fic where they describe in detail again how Luffy and Coby met on Alvida's ship. Again... :(

* * *

**SilverRainFalls (2011-05-31 . chapter 4): Hum...so the battle of Whiskey Peak is going underway. I can't say I'm too worried about Zoro and Pell falling into the ocean, because I don't think an explosion is enough to stop Zoro, so he could go and rescue Pell. xP**

**Drake and Robin...? That seems to work surprisingly well. They're both quite rational, although Robin, of course, is a lot calmer. **

A: My... you're good... .;; No uh... comment on the Zoro/Pell thing.

Drake and Robin always seemed like a natural pair to me. They have the same sort of compatible personality. Also a tight leather clothing fetish... *snerks*

(ps: replying your review was what gave me the idea for "the skanky pants" scene. Thank you ;) )

* * *

**archsage150 (2011-05-31 . chapter 4) You probably have seen a lot of this, but I'm concerned about how your going to work around Robin.**

******animefan29 (2011-05-31 . chapter 4): I noted one of your reviewers asking what you will do with Nico Robin if she doesn't join the Strawhats. I'm betting that if she doesn't you will just use the answer the manga has already provided, have her join up with revolutionaries. She is highly revered by them, and they can offer her protection that no one else can. I mean if CP9 could have assassinated Dragon I think they would have, so clearly they can't.**

A: Yes, the fate of Robin seems to be a very very very hot topic. Everyone seems to be asking about it. I have planned the whole thing out already, so hopefully it will be answered in due time. And hopefully it will be satisfactory when it is.

* * *

**yumeniai (2011-05-31 . chapter 4) Marine!Nami is hilarious. I love how manipulative she is! And since she never had to buy her village, I suppose she doesn't have as much of a fascination with money any more ... this will be weird to see!**

A: I have to admit I enjoy making Marine!Nami and Momonga interact. You're right in that there will be some changes in her character, because she never had to go through eight years of living under his enslavement.

* * *

**Son of Whitebeard (2011-06-01 . chapter 4) I would like to know if Law is Dr. Hiriluk's nephew in this AU as he took Chopper with him...**

A: Alas, Law is from the North Blue and Hiruluk is from the Grand Line. This does not preclude them from being relations, of course, but for now, my answer is "No Law is not".

* * *

**AzerBlazer (2011-06-01 . chapter 4): Is Bonney's attitude a precurser to everyone elses when Luffy makes a decision? Because in canon, most of the people that joined the crew were usually not even pirate inclined (bounty hunter, pirate hater thief etc.) But all of the supernovas seem a bit more suited. wonder how they'll handle Luffy's "Save them cause they're my friends" logic**

A: Given that Luffy is easily bribed with food... this is going to be interesting, isn't it? ;)

* * *

**deepspob (2011-06-04 . chapter 4) you said you wont use the strawhat crew and have something else planned for them but zoro is one of the Supernova 11 are you keeping him or perhaps making an oc?**

A: I will not be introducing any OCs as part of the SH crew. Zoro however, is one of the 11 Supernovas so he's in by default.

* * *

**Airling42 (2011-06-17 . chapter 4) Tragical and stone-faced X Drake being tragical and impassive with the tragical and poker-faced Robin (my new OTP?)**

A: I love Drake and I love Robin, so I guess it was kind of inevitable I'd pair them as partners. The reserved way they interact makes me chuckle.

* * *

**Baron von Nobody (2011-06-22 . chapter 4) Still can't figure out where Kid is supposed to be... someplace with a mechanic or engineer or something?**

A: The scene with Kid in the beginning is actually a mechanic's workshop, and it contains cameos from another fanfic called "Fidelity" by Airling24. I like to give little shout-outs to fanfics I like.

* * *

**The Animaniac Dude (2011-07-04 . chapter 4) **... you know, I wasn't entirely certain I would like this when I started reading this story. but, now that i'm at the current spot, I'm actually rather liking this. i'm a littled irked by the original crew being bumped off, but... you're handling this remarkably well, so i'll let that slide.

A: I do love the original Straw Hats, so I will try to do them justice even though they won't be part of the crew. Besides, it's a fun opportunity to explore what else they might have been if they weren't pirates with Luffy. So many fun possibilities!

* * *

**_Thanks for reading! For those of you who follow my other fic "Though a Bird Can't Fly..." I regret to say that I've hit a block so it's going to be later than usual. We'll see how it goes but I'll try my best to get it out as fast as I can without compromising the quality. Thanks for your patience!_**


	6. The Captain's Conundrum

_**A/N: This chapter requires pre-knowledge of the Drum Island Arc in canon.**_

**The Supernova Eleven**

**Chapter 6: The Captain's Conundrum**

* * *

Mr. 0 had never liked this part of his job.

By nature he was a straightforward man, and preferred the direct approach to solving problems. Which was why he was currently wondering why he was wasting his time interrogating their newly-acquired captive.

"How did you know about the existence of our unseen benefactor?"

"It was obvious," replied the girl. She was of course, Miss Mother's Day, also known as the double-agent Princess Vivi, and was currently seated in the interrogation chair before him, infuriatingly composed despite the dire situation she was in.

Mr. 0 hid his scowl at the vagueness of her reply. They had been through rounds and rounds of similar responses. While Princess Vivi had promised to cooperate, her maddening and inconclusive answers to his questions had him wishing he had left the interrogation to Miss All-Sunday. His partner was much better at extracting information than he was, especially with someone of Princess Vivi's mental acuity.

In any case, Mr. 0 was tired of the game. He got up and made to leave.

"If you wish to continue side-stepping my questions with empty words, suit yourself." There was a whoosh of fabric as Mr. 0 headed for the door. "But there's no use holding out. If I don't get the information I want out of you now, I will just have to employ more effective means. You should know what that entails."

Princess Vivi did. Perhaps that was what moved her to speak again.

"My father kept hunting hounds," she suddenly said. Mr. 0 stopped at this.

"Chaka used to bring me to the royal kennels to play with them," Princess Vivi continued serenely, as Mr. 0 turned around and looked back at her curiously for her strange choice of topic. "Even though those dogs could be so ferocious when hunting game, they were always gentle when they played with us.

"One day Chaka told me something interesting about those hounds. He said that even though those animals were actually powerful and intelligent enough to take game on their own, they had been conditioned from birth to be loyal to their master and never do anything without the huntsman first commanding them to—"

"Why are you telling me this?" interrupted Mr. 0, somewhat impatiently.

"You asked me earlier how I knew about the existence of your benefactor, Mr. 0," the princess replied calmly. "The answer was because I had met you in person.

"The way you conducted yourself, the way you ran the organisation, the way you knew to value people who are efficient and who can follow orders over those who would curry favour. Normal people don't have this kind of discipline, that kind of single-minded focus in carrying out an objective. That gave you away.

"You're not just some common bounty hunter or pirate, Mr. 0. I know, because I can recognise a well-trained hound when I see one."

Mr. 0's eyes narrowed.

"But the thing about trained hounds is: they don't hunt for themselves. No, if there is a hound, there must be a master controlling it somewhere.

"So now that I've said all that, Mr. 0," at this Vivi raised her gaze and looked directly into the man's piercing green eyes, "I want to know: What do you intend to do with me?"

For several tense moments they held each other's gaze in a match of wills.

"It would really depend on the huntsman's command, wouldn't it, princess?"

With this, Mr. 0 turned on his heel and swiftly left the room, his red cape billowing behind him.

* * *

Dalton peered through the binoculars intently. The pirate ship was sailing up the rivermouth, but the former captain of the guard couldn't help but feel somewhat disturbed. The Jolly Roger fluttering from the crow's nest marked the pirate ship for what it was, but it seemed to be sailing without any visible crew on deck.

"A caravel of unusual design. There is no steering wheel on the bridge."

"They're not very good sailors, these pirates," commented one of the villagers. "They're coming in way too fast to dock." Dalton blinked and put down the binoculars. The ship was now so close that they weren't necessary. He squinted, then started.

"Are those pirates _insane_?"

The sheep-headed ship, which still looked deserted, continued its course without slowing or veering, and plowed straight into first the riverside ice, and then into the snow-covered bank. The villagers winced at the sound of the wooden keel scraping over the rocks beneath the snow as the out-of-control vessel ground to a halt.

"The poor ship. What kind of crazy pirates does it have sailing it?" wondered one of the villagers.

Dalton noted that it was Old Man Wright from Gyasta. It was the kind of thing the old shipwright would say. But before Dalton could comment, his sharp eyes had noticed movement from the cabin door.

"Be on your guard, here they come!" he warned.

The villagers tightened their grips on their weapons and readied for battle. But much to their surprise, only a single figure emerged.

The boy who appeared on the bridge looked more like a desperate castaway than a menacing corsair. His dark hair was wild and ruffled, his clothing ragged and dirty, and his body sagged with fatigue. The dark circles under his eyes told of sleepless nights and a terrible anxiety. The aura of desperation he emanated was something the villagers could sense, even though they did not know why that was.

If this was a pirate planning on sacking the town, he did not look very impressive or intimidating.

"This is as far as you get, pirate," Dalton warned sternly, although he'd involuntarily tempered the harshness of his tone due to the sorry appearance of the pirate. "We are the Drum Island Militia. Your kind are not welcome here. Leave now, and we will let you go free. But if you try to step foot on this island, we will be forced to defend our homes."

The pirate didn't seem to have heard him. At least, he did not respond, and just stood there staring at them with wide eyes. If he didn't sway a little as he stood, Dalton would almost have thought the boy had frozen into a statue.

"Do you understand what I am saying?"

"D-doctor."

There was a sudden hush as the pirate starting speaking deliriously.

"Need... doctor. Or Bonney will die."

"We have no doctors here for you, pirate!" yelled one of the villagers, taking aim at the potential intruder as he said so. "So do as Dalton-san says and get out of here!"

"No. Bonney will die."

"Like we're falling for that trick!" In fear or anger, another man raised his gun at the boy.

And by accident, it went off.

For a moment, it seemed as though the shot had hit and killed the pirate boy. He even swayed and took one step back from the impact of the bullet. Everyone expected the body to hit the floor, but their expectations turned out to be off the mark.

Dalton was the first to react. And he barely did it in time — his spade-blade just managed to block the bullet that had somehow been reflected back at them.

A gasp of horror rose amongst the ranks of the defenders.

"It's a zombie!"

"A cursed undead creature that cannot be killed!"

"And reflects bullets!"

This was followed with cries of fear.

"Dalton-san! What do we do?" a villager said, turning to the former captain for leadership.

"A doooctor..." moaned the 'zombie'-boy, not appearing to have even noticed that he had been shot. "...need a doctor..."

"Go away!" yelled one of the villagers, almost hysterically. "Begone, foul scourge of the unliving!"

"W-why won't you let her see a dooooctor?"

"We only have one doctor here on the island," Dalton replied as his keen senses studied the boy. Despite the panicking villagers, the bison-man was pretty sure that the boy was no undead. "We cannot risk you harming him."

"As if that were even possible," murmured a villager underneath his breath. Dalton's sharp senses heard it, but he decided not to comment.

"I promise... we won't!" Desperate, the boy knelt and touched his forehead to the wooden deck. "Please, or Bonney... and the others will die!"

A sudden memory stirred in Dalton's mind at the familiar gesture.

* * *

_It was scene he had had to witness time and time again, but Dalton had never been able to keep from cringing inside each time._

_"Please, great Wapol!" this time it was a man, and he was shaking, tears dripping from his eyes as he bowed low and begged. "My wife and son are both very ill, please let them see the Ishii-20! They will die if they don't!"_

_Wapol merely threw his head up and laughed. "I'll think about it. Come back and beg again tomorrow."_

_Given the urgency of his plea, Dalton had expected the man to be waiting for another audience with the king first thing in the morning. But he did not come back the next day._

_It was none of his business of course, but in the end Dalton's curiosity got the better of him and he found himself seeking out the man's house once he was off-duty._

_What he found there was a grieving man sitting alone in the snow in front of his doorstep. Apparently, both members of his family had died sometime during the night._

* * *

"You have no right to demand to see a doctor, pirate!"

Even with that despicable coward of a king absent, Wapol had still left his mark on them. Dalton gritted his teeth. No, he would not follow the example of that loathed monster.

"Pirate-boy, how many wounded do you have? Can I trust your word that you will not attempt anything?"

"Dalton-san!" protested one of the villagers.

"Have you all forgotten what Wapol did to the people of Drum?" Dalton asked sternly. "He made us beg and grovel for medical treatment! It did not matter whether we were peasants, travellers or nobles, it was all the same! We will not let his legacy taint our actions any longer. _I will not_. Even if the person begging is a pirate, how are we any better than Wapol if we deny him access to medical treatment?"

Hushed murmurs greeted his speech.

"Dalton-san is right."

"But..."

"I-I promise not to cause trouble," the boy pledged.

"Then it is settled," Dalton said firmly. "Bring your wounded in. There is a blizzard coming, they would be safest in my house."

* * *

Dalton's house was modest but cosy. A fireplace with glowing embers which he quickly stoked into flame kept the room warm enough to be comfortable, despite the stiff chill outside. As Dalton had predicted, a blizzard was well on its way.

"This village is called Bighorn. It was buried under snow for seven days in the last blizzard," he said as he tended to the fire.

The girl, whom the boy kept calling 'Bonney', was quickly given the only bed in the room. Despite his condition, the pirate-boy had insisted on carrying the girl there himself.

"The blizzard will be a problem," Dalton warned the boy as he inspected the injured. "The Doctor lives on the top of the Drum Rockies, and it's all but impassable in this weather. We must wait out the storm out before we proceed."

Dalton was of the opinion that the boy himself looked about to keel over, but he said nothing as he had his hands full with the other two wounded from the pirate ship.

Something about one of them, the dark-headed one, seemed vaguely familiar, although Dalton couldn't place it. Perhaps he had seen him in a wanted poster before.

But no, that couldn't be right. Even the man's scent, contaminated with the smell of burned flesh, was vaguely familiar, even if Dalton couldn't place it.

He wondered what had happened to them. Both men were unresponsive but alive. While they looked worse off than the girl did, he did note that despite being covered in burns, their vitals were fairly steady.

Which was something he could not say for the condition of the girl. Her breathing was erratic and there was a dark and ugly bruising on her torso area that disturbed Dalton.

It reminded him of an incident where one of his men had been kicked in the stomach by a lapahn years ago. The soldier had laughed it off, mentioning how he had a massive bruise the shape of a lapahn's footprint on his stomach.

And then he had collapsed almost half a day later. The doctors had managed to save his life, but had bemoaned the foolishness of the man for delaying medical help. The animal part of Dalton gave him a gut feeling that this was something similar.

"I don't claim to be a doctor, but I have seen this kind of injury before," Dalton told the pirate-boy, his face scrunching into a worried frown. "If I am not mistaken, time is of the essence. The sooner we get her to the doctor, the better. As soon as the blizzard is over—"

The moment he said this, a cold gust of air filled the cabin as the front door was opened.

"Boy! What are you doing?"

The ridiculous pirate-boy had gathered up the girl in a bundle of blankets and was already half-way out the door.

"Bonney needs a doctor as soon as possible," the boy replied, not looking at him as he spoke. "She can't see the doctor if we stay here and wait. We can't wait for the blizzard to stop."

Dalton knew this was true. But the undertaking was insane... foolhardy and reckless!

Like Hiruluk, walking open-eyed into a trap, and Wapol laughing at his foolhardiness all the while...

"Boy, wait! You don't know the way!"

"Then I'll find it! I won't let Bonney die."

Dalton sighed. "No, follow me. I'll come with you. The villagers can watch over your other two friends."

* * *

Dalton-ossan had not been exaggerating when he said it was a blizzard.

Luffy didn't know how the large man even knew where he was going, but he moved through the white curtain of heavy snowflakes steadily and unerringly, sloughing a path through the drifts for them to follow. Luffy determinedly did his best to follow suit, his precious burden cradled in his arms.

Bonney had sunken into a deep sleep, and had only woken up once to ask where they were and who Dalton was. She hadn't stayed awake long enough to hear him finish his answer of: "The nice ossan's taking us to see the doctor.".

For Luffy, this part of the journey almost felt like a waking dream. Or perhaps more accurately, a waking nightmare, for it was then when the gnawing, empty feeling of hunger and fatigue deep inside him really made itself felt as they trudged through the storm without conversation.

The wild howling of the wind made attempting to talk pointless anyway.

For what felt like hours, the blizzard raged, relentlessly battering the two humans foolish enough to be out in it. Then with sudden abruptness, it stopped. The curtain of fat snowflakes cleared, and Luffy was much heartened to see that Dalton's mystery sense of direction had been right after all. Ahead of them loomed the Drum Rockies.

"Lapahn don't like the snow much. They stay in their burrows every time there is a blizzard and wait for the snow to become hard-packed before they move," Dalton said out of the blue.

Luffy didn't know or care why Dalton was talking about lapahn. He was more concerned about Bonney, who was stirring. It was as if she had somehow sensed the worst of the storm was over, and groggily opened her eyes.

"Luffy... what's that?"

"Bonney!"

The rubber-boy was so happy to see his nakama awake, he almost forgot to answer her question.

"What's what?"

"...behind that tree..." said Bonney, trying to motion weakly.

Luffy turned around and managed to catch a glimpse of a strange four-legged animal that was for some odd reason, attempting to hide its head behind the trunk of a pine. With the rest of its body exposed, the creature looked rather absurd, but it soon quickly realised that it had been spotted, and bolted in a scatter of fresh snow.

"What kind of creature was that?" wondered Bonney, surprisingly lucid.

"Chopper," said Dalton quietly, looking after the fleeing animal.

"D-does it eat people?"

"Chopper is a reindeer. And no, they do not eat people."

"Then why was he following us?"

"Chopper is... curious. He probably saw your Jolly Roger and followed us."

"Is the mystery animal your pet or something, Ossan?" Luffy interjected.

"I wouldn't say that," replied Dalton, as they resumed their march. The clearing of the weather had lifted their spirits somewhat. "Chopper is— well, it's a long story..."

* * *

_"Are you sure you will be ok on your own, Dalton-san? They **are** pirates..."_

_"Humour this old man," Dalton had said as he pulled on his furred cap. "Besides, I did promise to keep an eye on those pirates, didn't I?"_

_"Well, if you say so. I'll watch these two for you until you come back then."_

It had seemed like a reasonable thing to do at that time. After all, Old man Wright reflected as he sat in front of the fire in middle of Dalton's modest house, Dalton-san needed a bit of help and he was flattered to have been approached and to be of assistance.

All the same, he was beginning to regret his decision to stay in Dalton's house and help keep an eye on the two wounded pirates. True, the two pirates that Dalton-san had left under his care looked so out of it, they wouldn't pose much of a threat even if one of them regained consciousness. But still, there was something about those two that spooked the lone villager.

Which was why he gave a little shriek when one of them suddenly moved.

In a panic, the shipwright reached for his weapon. Dalton wasn't here... what was he to do if the pirate awoke and turned violent?

Fortunately, the pirate did not awaken, although he did mumble a few words before sinking back into unconsciousness.

"...princess..."

Sheepishly, the villager lowered his weapon again, feeling somewhat foolish for having overreacted. He reflected that obviously even pirates had typical dreams about princesses.

And then he yelped again. This time because of an unexpected knock on the door.

"Excuse me," said the visitor politely as the old shipwright answered the door. It was no one the old man could recognise. "I'm looking for a Mr. Dalton? I was told that this was his house."

"It is. But Dalton-san is not here. He went for the doctor."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. Do you know when he will be back?"

"I'm not sure," answered the old man, relaxing a little. While the long dark coat and wide-brimmed hat the newcomer wore made him look somewhat intimidating, at least he seemed like a civil sort of person. "It will depend greatly on the weather; unfortunately the blizzard hasn't let up yet."

"Well, what do we do now?" a grim voice interrupted.

The old shipwright quickly realised that it came from another man who until then, had been silently standing behind the first. He could barely make out the shape of the man in the thick curtain of falling flakes, his bright yellow scarf contrasting against his camouflaging pale blue coat.

"I'm sorry to impose, but do you mind if we wait here for him?" asked the first visitor.

"Ah, well..." the shipwright wasn't sure what Dalton would think about letting two more strangers into his house, but he quickly decided Dalton-san probably wouldn't have kept two visitors waiting outside in the cold and let them in.

"So did you two just get here?" Wright inquired of the men as they settled down to wait. He noted that the first man, the dark-coated one, didn't even seem cold, while the other one obviously did not feel the same way and had taken up a position near the fireplace to thaw.

"Just half-an-hour ago."

"Yes, we almost thought we missed the island; weather was crazy on the way here," supplied the other man.

"You sailed here in the _blizzard_?" blurted Wright in disbelief.

The young man (Wright could see the first man was significantly younger than his companion) just shrugged and smiled. "Well it happened to er... stop just as we got to the island."

"That's very fortunate! Many folk get lost in those storms and are never seen again."

"Y—es," said the first visitor with a polite little cough. "It was very fortunate indeed."

* * *

"...so what happened to the Doctor?" 'Bonney' asked as she huddled against 'Luffy'. Despite the fact she was wrapped in a cocoon of blankets, Dalton noted that she was shivering.

"You mean Dr. Hiruluk? As I said, he died, and Chopper has once again shunned human company and gone wild."

"No, the other doctor. You said there was another one... is she the one you're taking me to?"

Dalton suddenly looked disturbed. He had spent the better part of the remaining trek recounting the history of Drum's doctor-hunts to two of them, and how its famed level of expertise in medicine had declined into almost nothing.

"Since Hiruluk's death, no one has seen Dr. Kureha anywhere. We searched, but the aftermath of the pirate raid was such that it was hard to make sense of anything. The only doctor on the island now arrived after Wapol fled from Blackbeard. He said he was from the North Blue and had come to study our famous Drum medicine. The fact that there we no longer any doctors left did not seem to deter him."

"So why does he live all the way up in the castle instead of in the villages?"

"Most of the Ishii-20's medical notes and equipment were kept in the castle. Dr. Law found them a precious resource."

Bonney suddenly slumped against Luffy's shoulder. She had seemed alert and cheery earlier, but now the pain had returned.

Dalton remembered that the soldier who had suffered a similar injury had seemed to improve right before collapsing as well.

"It's getting harder to breathe," the girl murmured to her companion.

"Yes, we are quite high up now, and the air thins." Dalton hesitated, not wanting to alarm the two by sharing his suspicions. "We don't have time, we must move quickly—"

And then, just as he turned back to look at the two, he froze, staring at something far behind them.

"Boy," Dalton said slowly, trying not to spook Luffy. "Take your friend and go on ahead without me."

"Eh? Why? Aren't you coming along?"

Dalton continued speaking, as if he hadn't heard Luffy's question. "Go! Whatever happens, keep going. Don't stop."

* * *

Luffy did not know what had disturbed Dalton enough to order them on alone, but there was an urgent note in Dalton's voice that told him he ought to listen.

He had enough to worry about himself. Bonney had suddenly fallen silent again, and he was alarmed to notice her eyes were closed and her face had turned almost as pale as the snow that surrounded them.

There was no time to waste. The boy-captain took one last look at Dalton, who now stood like a statue with his strange spade-blade drawn, and faced the towering heights of the Drum mountain. Double-checking that the fastenings that kept Bonney attached to him were secure, he gritted his teeth and began forging ahead.

Behind him, muffled shouts carried over the snowdrifts.

* * *

The Doctor had always liked the snow-storms of Drum. Maybe it was because they reminded him of the harsh climate of his native North Blue. Which when one thought about it, was a strange thing, because the Doctor did not have fond memories of his home ocean.

"Hmm... I wonder how Mr. Dalton is doing with those marauding pirates?" the Doctor mused to his test mouse. The white rodent immediately dropped the lab block it had been nibbling and quickly darted into the corner of the cage furthest from the man. "I suppose the storm's been keeping any new messengers from arriving but I'm _bored_ and an autopsy would be _just the thing_."

Yes, he was bored. That was exactly the problem. He, Doctor Trafalgar Law, was bored.

It made no sense, of course. Here he had almost everything he needed and a lifetime's worth of work ahead of him. Mountains and mountains of notes and research and discoveries. But his heart wasn't in it. And he couldn't explain why.

Or perhaps he could. Perhaps he just didn't want to admit to himself that the wanderlust was stirring again.

On a whim he flung on his furred coat and decided to go for a stroll around the grounds. The view was always extra magnificent just after a blizzard.

The first thing he noticed was the signs of activity from the village. There seemed to be more smoke coming from it, certainly. He supposed it was from the pirate attack.

Law scowled. The villagers were sure taking their time in sending the corpses over. Perhaps he ought to make a trip to Bighorn after all. The waiting was trying his patience.

"Doctor..."

Law blinked. He had been so deep in his thoughts that he had failed to notice the set of knuckles gripping the edge of the cliff.

"Looks like Mr. Dalton didn't quite manage to handle those pirates after all," he murmured to himself as he casually strolled over to the edge. Fortunately he was a second slow in peering over, as at that moment, something stretched and shot upwards, narrowly missing him.

There was a screaming and flailing of limbs, and then something bounced a few times on the ground next to him before slowing to a stop.

He knew immediately that the thing was a devil-fruit user, because it had stretched, partially inflated, and wrapped himself around the slight figure he was carrying. A smart move to cushion the fall, really. Law was still pondering what manner of creature the new arrival was when the thing began unravelling and shrinking back into the shape of a rather bedraggled-looking boy carrying an unconscious pink-haired girl.

"A-are you the doctor?"

Law stared at the boy for a moment and smiled. The day was looking up.

* * *

"Looks like the blizzard's let up," the young visitor announced, peering out the window. "Hopefully we won't have to impose on you much longer, sir."

"Oh, it's no bother at all. It's been great having your company," replied Wright the shipwright brightly. And he meant it.

The two visitors had proven themselves to be thoroughly pleasant fellows. Even the older one with the initially grim demeanour had turned out to be an extremely friendly and engaging chap once he had thawed out a little (both literally and figuratively). And as it turned out, the both of them had many interesting stories about their travels in the Grand Line.

The two of them were also extremely sympathetic listeners and had been most willing to listen to his accounts of the various troubles that had befallen the former Drum Kingdom and how it impacted the locals. Telling the tale of Wapol's reign of terror and his subsequent desertion during Blackbeard's invasion certainly made the old man's vigil over the two wounded pirates much more pleasant.

At least, it was pleasant until the gunshots interrupted the peace of the village.

"What was that?" the younger of the two visitors asked, standing up suddenly in alarm.

"You two stay here, I'm going to see what's going on," the old man, anxious not to have the visitors into think Bighorn was some sort of lawless cowboy town. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

"I'll come with you, gramps," offered the yellow-scarfed man.

The old man was already on his way out the door, his mind racing.

Gunshots in the quiet village meant trouble. Had something happened? Perhaps more pirates had showed up and the pitiful pirate who had crashed his poor ship was actually a diversion for the real raid?

The figures of men were now visible at the village entrance. As they drew closer what the old man saw made his heart sink.

"Oh, looks like your local militia's already handled the problem," his companion, who had seen the same thing, pointed out cheerfully. Several armed men were standing guard over another group of men. "That's the uniform of your armed forces right? Is Dalton-san with them? Eh, gramps, what wrong?"

The old man was shaking in fear and horror. "Our village militia does not wear uniforms. Those men are from the army of our former king Wapol."

* * *

"So you're saying, Mr. Straw-Hat, that Mr. Dalton felt sorry for you lot and decided to lead you guys here to find me?"

"Yes, Ossan did."

"And he still did this after you told him you were pirates?"

"Yeah. He's a really nice ossan."

The strange straw-hatted boy, while initially desperate, seemed to have cheered up massively on finding out that he had successfully brought his companion to the doctor. This the doctor already found remarkable, considering the boy himself was in very bad shape from the climb up the sheer rockface, if his frost-bitten fingers and multiple lacerations were any indication.

And he looked as though he could have used a square meal or two, too.

"Hm. And where is he now?" Law asked the boy casually, peering at the boy's 'lacerations' and mentally correcting himself as he did so. What he had thought were lacerations were actually areas where the skin had frozen solid, lost its elasticity, and cracked open to expose the flesh inside. Definitely painful, yet the boy didn't even seem to be bothered by the injury.

"Well just now when we were at the bottom he started acting all weird and told me to keep going on alone."

"It does sound like something is amiss," muttered Law as he turned his attention to his prospective patient. Young girl, aged between sixteen and eighteen. Pale and sweaty despite being dressed extremely inappropriately for the freezing weather of the winter island. Pulse weak but fast, breathing erratically accelerated. The ugly bruising on her exposed midriff made diagnosis easy enough.

"Internal bleeding. And you said she hasn't been treated for _days_?"

The strange stretchy boy nodded.

"Interesting. Quite the medical miracle." The doctor prepared to move the girl. "I'm surprised she's lasted this long. C'mon."

"Where're we taking Bonney?"

"Surgery room," replied Law as the two carried the girl towards the castle. "I'll have to operate at once if there's to be any chance of saving her."

Anxious to help, Luffy ran ahead to help open the main door, but quickly found himself perplexed as the main door turned out to be frozen shut. In fact, it appeared to have been left that way for a long while. He was about to attempt to break it down when the doctor stopped him.

"Don't break it down. The castle'll be too cold and drafty if you do. And I use a different way to get in."

Barely a minute later, doctor, girl and boy were all inside the castle. Law smiled a little at the boy's gaping reaction. "Pick your rubber-jaw off the ground, kid. By the way, what did you say happened to Mr. Dalton again?"

* * *

In the village of Bighorn, a tense face-off was currently taking place.

"Don't move, all of you!" The soldiers had their rifles trained on the newcomers.

"Wright! They ambushed us in the blizzard!" one of the villagers, who was being held prisoner, yelled suddenly. "Run for it! You must find and warn Dalton-san!"

There was a scream as a gunshot rang through the icy air. The villager who had spoken out had been silenced.

"Oi, this is really unnecessary. We're just—" began the traveller, palm facing outwards and trying to pacify the soldier. It didn't work.

"Save your breath. As for that old man Dalton, you need not worry about finding him. Wapol-sama beat you to it."

* * *

_**Elsewhere, at the foot of the Drum rockies...**_

"I can't believe it! Wapol-sama is beaten!"

"Wapol-sama!"

'Wapol-sama' lay in the snow where he had fallen. Dalton's blade had struck a mighty blow and felled the deserting despot.

While Wapol was down, Chess and Kuromarimo, the two ministers, were very much alive, and were now engaging the former Captain of the Guard. They were finding out, however, that their former comrade hadn't spent the last few months sitting around in a submarine playing pirate. In fact, he had been going around preparing the country for independence, which had included plans for what to do when Wapol and his men return.

True, the arrival of Straw-Hat Luffy and the fluke blizzard had presented something of a spanner in the works, and the militia had been taken by surprise when their de facto leader had been absent. But Dalton himself had been mentally and physically prepared to fight his former king any time, and the training and preparation had paid off.

"Y-you traitor Dalton! How dare you strike your king and comrades?" Kuromarimo spat out at Dalton.

"What kind of a king flees and leaves his subject to the mercies of raiding pirates?" Dalton responded angrily. "What kind of comrade locks one of their own in a dungeon and leaves him there to die?" the bison-man roared in rage as his blade bit into Kuromarimo's afro, slicing his coiffure into ruination. He followed up with cutting the man himself with the backstroke. Kuromarimo went down with a scream.

Dalton's animal senses detected the approach of Chess' whistling projectiles. He barely managed to dodge the arrows in time, before turning into a full bison and charging into the archer, ramming him hard and sending him flying.

All three down. That was good. As Dalton transformed back into human form and caught his breath, he turned and saw that Wapol's fallen form was now surrounded by his posse of doctors. They were the famous Ishii-20. And each and every one of those incredibly skilled doctors were all treating the downed despot.

There was only one thing to do: Dalton charged back towards the fallen monarch. "Stop!"

The doctors did not stop operating. Their attention remained fixed on their patient even as Dalton closed in on them, blade held high and ready to strike down the nearest medic.

"Stop, or I will cut you down!" Dalton gave his last warning.

Still, they did not stop.

"Forgive us, Dalton-san." The voice of the doctor he was about to strike was the hoarse, tired whisper of a man whose free will had been broken long ago. "We doctors are just doing what our king commanded. It's the only thing we have left."

Dalton hesitated as his weapon paused midair.

It was true. It had always been true of the people of Drum. They had always unthinkingly followed their king's orders.

And until that day Hiruluk had broken Dalton out of his blind obedience, he himself had been the same. If the scales hadn't fallen from his eyes back then, would he still be just like the doctor in his conditioned thinking? Did that mean that if their situations had been reversed, did he deserve to die as well?

Could he really strike down an unarmed man who wasn't even fighting back?

_Never. I am not like that monster._

Dalton lowered his weapon.

"Poor kind-hearted little Dalton," a voice mocked. Dalton whirled around. Chess had recovered from the ramming and was drawing a bead on him with his bow.

Dalton knew he should have been able to dodge the barrage of arrows. But even as his muscles tensed to spring out of the way, he quickly realised this was something he could not do. The Ishii-20 were standing right behind him, and Chess' arrows did not discriminate between the allegiances of those they struck.

Too late to block with his spade-blade, but he tried anyway. Some of the arrows were deflected. Others found their mark. Dalton jerked backwards from the successive impacts and he half-stumbled to the ground..

"You should have slaughtered the Ishii-20 when you had the chance. It would have been a tactical decision. But then, you always were weak that way. Dalton-kun."

"I'm not done yet," Dalton replied defiantly, forcing himself to his feet. The arrows had missed vital areas but they would be enough to cripple him for the rest of the fight unless he could take Chess out for the count.

"Oh, but yes, you are," a much-hated voice chimed in.

And there, rising up behind him like a dark shadow, was Wapol, now fully healed of all his wounds.

Dalton knew it was hopeless, and yet some stubborn part of him refused to give up. So he transformed, and charged at the man who once he had pledged his loyalty to.

* * *

_**Meanwhile, in Bighorn village...**_

"Put those hands where I can see them," ordered the Drum soldier. "And you with the scarf, we can see you're armed. Drop those swords to the ground. Slowly."

"Hang on now," protested the traveller querulously. "These are high-quality swords, you can't just dump them in the snow!"

"Shut up and do as he says!"

"Look, I'd rather not get involved in your civil war. I'm just passing by looking for information on a pirate named Blackbeard. They told me that a Dalton-san may know more about him being here so I..."

The soldier wasn't interested in listening to what he had to say and ended that conversation with a gunshot.

* * *

"What was that?"

The wind had stopped howling for a moment, and it was at that same moment, the sound of gunshots far below managed to get through.

Law paused from his pre-operation preparations and looked towards the direction of the noise, his brow furrowed in annoyance.

"It looks like it's coming from the village. Rest of your people not the trouble-causing type, are they?"

"Huh? Can't be, the bird-ossan and the marimo-man were both too beat up to do anything."

"'Bird-ossan'? You have a zoan-type with you?" said Law, suddenly interested. He didn't get to question Luffy further as a loud, unrestrained yell pierced the frosty air outside the castle.

"There it is! And nothing's changed! Finally I will reclaim my castle and throne!"

"Hey, Doctor-ossan, who's that?" Luffy wondered, peering through the panes of frosted glass.

"Straw-Hat, never, ever call me 'ossan' again. If you have to address me, it's Doctor, or Dr. Law. And I have a very strong suspicion that may be the former King Wapol and his flunkies. They won't be happy to find us in here."

"Why?"

There was a shuddering crash and rattle from the front door.

"Hey! The stupid door's frozen shut!"

"Let's break it down!"

"Stand back. I'm going to eat it!"

"Let's just say this is incredibly bad timing," Dr. Law said calmly as the sounds of a door being crunched echoed down the halls. "If the stories about that guy are true, things will get ugly soon. Mr. Straw-Hat, if you want that girl of yours to have a chance of surviving, hold them off! I can't fight and operate at the same time!"

Luffy nodded. "I won't let Bonney die!"

"That's my job," corrected Law. "Your job is to keep those idiots from interrupting my operation!"

There was no answer. The boy had already left to face the corpulent tyrant and his two commanders.

And the odds were three against one.

* * *

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

_**A/N: Sorry for the wait for this chapter! I hit a pretty bad writer's block, but finally it got a breakthrough!**_

_**Firstly, I just want to give a shout-out to my beta callosum, who did phenomenally good job beta-ing the last six chapters of this fic. However, due to RL considerations, she won't be able to continue for SN11, but I'd just like to take the opportunity to thank her for her guidance and encourage you guys to check out her writings. Shanks fans should especially check out "Strands of Red Hair". If you like my stuff, there's a high chance that you'll probably like hers.**_

_**Secondly, yes I know I've been hit with both a hectic shedule AND a lot of writer's blocks recently which has resulted in schedule slip. To counteract it I'm going to shift out of my round-robin schedule of taking turns to update a chapter for each fic to and arc-based updating schedule to maximize output. What this means is basically, more "The Supernova Eleven" updates until the end of the Baroque Works story arc and a break afterwards while I work on my other fics. Hopefully it works out better, we'll see.**_

_**Thanks for reading, and of course for your lovely reviews, recommendations, and favourites. See you next chapter!**_

_**ps: If anyone is wondering what happened to the Q and A section for this chapter, I didn't have time to do one yet. So watch this space. It'll be either posted up here or on the next update!  
**_


	7. The Defiance of Doctors

_**A/N: This chapter requires pre-knowledge of the Drum Island Arc in canon.**_

**The Supernova Eleven**

**Chapter 7: The Defiance of Doctors**

* * *

The village of Bighorn was burning.

When the terrified villagers realised what was happening, they bolted out of their doors in panic. There, they were greeted by the soldiers of their former king Wapol, who roughly herded them into the town center.

It was not the villagers whom the soldiers sought however. In the eyes of the soldiers, the villagers were mere peasants, not worthy of their attention. No, their main concern was for something else.

"Keep searching! That damned swordsman can't have just disappeared, he's got to be around somewhere!"

"Be on your guard, he's dangerous!"

The rest of the huddled villagers watched in bewilderment as soldiers ran in around searching for the single individual who had unbelievably managed to cut up an entire squadron all by himself. The feat had earned him enough fear that the soldiers were willing to torch the entire village to flush him out from cover.

"We have the advantage of numbers and there's only one of him! There's no way we can lose if we rush him all at once!"

This had already been proven untrue, of course, but it served as the soldiers' rallying cry anyway.

* * *

Not too far away, the same swordsman the soldiers were looking for was taking cover behind a grove of wintergreens. While he was skilled enough to defeat most of them, he still did not like being shot at, especially when he hadn't been keen on getting involved in a fight in the first place.

"_'Ooooh! We'll just drop by Drum'_, he said... _'Make a few enquiries about that bastard and be on our way'_, he said," grumbled the swordsman to himself, "Well if it was all supposed to be so simple how the _hell_ did you manage to get me caught up in a civil war, Mr. Smarty-Pants?"

The frozen landscape, with the crackling sounds of burning in the background, did not offer an answer. The swordsman sighed. "Well... fine. Just find that Dalton-san's house again, get Mr. 'We'll Just Drop By' to help, ask questions, and get out... eh, who's that coming?"

From his place of concealment the swordsman saw a strange sight. More soldiers were marching in with several pink-gowned figures at gunpoint. A closer look revealed that these weren't women, as he had initially thought, but an assorted collection of intellectual-looking (and very terrified) men.

"It's the Ishii-20!" came a cry from the the gathered villagers. They, at least, knew who these oddly-garbed men were.

"But why do the soldiers have Wapol's doctors prisoner?" wondered another villager.

"Because this island is sick," muttered the swordsman to no one in particular. Since there was no one around to hear it, no one responded to his sage observation.

Despite being held at gunpoint, 'Ishii-20' seemed to have little concern for themselves and appeared to be pleading with the soldiers.

"Please, let us treat Dalton-san. He has been defeated. He's no threat!"

At the mention of the name, the villagers broke into cries of fear and concern.

"Dalton-san?"

"It's Dalton-san!"

"Those monsters! What have they done to him?"

The swordsman shifted a bit more to the side so he could see better. His eyes widened. Behind the heavily-furred soldiers was the limp figure of large man in green. Stretching out behind him, marking the path where he had been roughly dragged, was a trail of blood-stained snow.

"Oh crumbs. I guess we won't be getting any information from Mr. Dalton about Blackbeard anytime soon." The swordsman muttered. He was wondering whether to go back for his companion when he heard the sound of snow being crushed behind him. Hand on his sword, he turned around and found himself face-to-face with a towering, blue-nosed monster of an Abominable Snowman.

* * *

Inside the operating room, The Doctor was deep in the middle of surgery.

Concentration on what he was doing to the internals of his patient at this moment was vital. But all the same, he could hear the sounds of fighting from outside, and every now and then his eyes would dart to his sword, a _nodachi,_ which was leaning against the corner.

No sounds of anything disturbing the operating room door yet. But the doctor knew that unless that Straw-Hat boy was stronger than he looked, there could very well be a moment coming soon when he would have to abandon the scalpel for the nodachi and fight for his life.

* * *

"Not so tough, are you, Boy?"

Luffy was trying to drag himself up from the floor, but he could barely suppress the shaking in his limbs. Facing down Wapol and getting into a straight-up fight had been a bad idea. Luffy was drained and cold and above all, hungry. Absolutely unfavourable conditions for fighting.

It hadn't helped that his opponent, Wapol, was constantly eating, which in turn kept reminding Luffy how hungry he was. To make matters worse he was flanked by two helpers. One of them kept shooting arrows that could, and had hurt, the otherwise impervious-to-blows boy.

"Who is this piece of trash anyway?" taunted the man with the afro-hair.

"Who cares?" replied the other man, the same one who wielded the bow and those painful arrows. "He's weak fodder. A lowly rubber paramecia who thinks he's special."

A flash of anger jolted Luffy to his feet. He knew he could not afford to show weakness now. Bonney's life depended on it. If he didn't stop those three from entering the castle, they would surely find the other two in there.

And even if the doctor turned out to be strong and could fight them off, the fight would interrupt the operation and Bonney would be dead. And he, Luffy, could NOT let that happen.

"You can't pass. I won't let you."

Wapol laughed in his face. "Who do you think you are, Boy?"

A sudden memory replayed in Luffy mind.

_"Oh, grow up, boy... You want to protect your nakama? You'd better have the strength to back it up." _

Luffy felt another flash of anger. That damned Skanky-Pants!

"I said I won't let you!"

Wapol's response was not in words, but a dismissive swipe. Perhaps he expected the boy to hit and then stay down for good, but Luffy was finding his second wind, and managed to avold the blow.

The second wind was also clearing his mind and Luffy was beginning to think. He'd tried fighting all three of them, but he was too... _weak_, and he had failed. He knew now that he could not possibly beat Wapol and his two henchman in his present circumstances. He wouldn't last long enough.

This time it was Law's voice which replayed in his head.

_"If you want that girl of yours to have a chance of surviving, hold them off! Your job is to keep those idiots from interrupting my operation!"_

Luffy suddenly realised the error in his tactics: he didn't have to beat Wapol. He just needed to keep them away from Law and Bonney long enough for the doctor to finish his operation. He'd been so used to solving problems with his fists it had become a second nature to just jump into a fray and beat things up, but this was one time when he had to think differently.

"Hey Wapol! You're fat! And ugly!"

"Call me names? Is that the best you can do?" Wapol did not look impressed, and continued towards the door which the doctor had disappeared into.

"And you're a coward of a king!" Luffy was remembering what Dalton-ossan had told him and Bonney about the former king. "You're scared of pirates, aren't you? You ran away like a sissy when that pirate Blackbeard came along! I'm a pirate, and you're running away from me because you're scared, aren't you? You're a fat-lazy-big-mouthed-ugly-coward!"

The jibe wiped the haughty look off Wapol's face.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

The taunt worked. Luffy previously had never thought of making use of what he had learned from Dalton-ossan's story, but now he was grateful for it, because instead of proceeding towards the direction of the Doctor, he turned and took a step towards Luffy.

"You heard me! And you're a slow-poke too!"

"How dare you insult the king like that?" said the henchman who had the bow. "Let's teach him a lesson, Kuromarimo!"

The other man, 'Kuromarimo', nodded. If he had plans of attacking Luffy however, he would not be successful, because the boy had already darted out of range and line of sight.

"Catch me if you can, slow-pokes!"

"AFTER HIM!"

"Chess! _Shoot_ him!"

Luffy, dashing away and dodging arrows, risked a glance behind him. His plan was working. All three of them were hot on his heels, and he was leading them out through the eaten-up door and into the castle grounds.

Away from the operating room.

* * *

To the villagers of Drum, the worst of their nightmares had come true. Wapol had returned, and for all their hopes and hard work at rebuilding their lives, they were once again beneath the heel of the same heartless tyrant. Before them, by the flickering light of their burning homes, was the bloodied and broken form of the man they respected as their leader: Dalton-san.

"By the order of King Wapol, this traitor will be publicly executed and his body hung on display in the village center!"

More cries of horror from the villagers. A bolder few made to move forward, but the soldiers quickly pointed their rifles at those few as a warning to stay where they were.

"You will all watch and learn what fate awaits a traitor," the leader of the soldiers said, sneering menacingly. "And if you are not content with just watching, well, there's going to be plenty of space on the gibbet for a few more. Any objections? No? Didn't think so."

Two soldiers dragged Dalton before the leader. The villagers could see now that he had been pierced with many arrows, but he was still alive, because his pained breathing was still audible. There was the sound of sobs as the leader cocked his gun and aimed it at Dalton-san's head.

"For King Wapol!"

Then a scream, inhuman and chilling, rent the air.

"What the hell was that?" The lead soldier glanced around nervously, all thoughts of playing the executioner forgotten. He was answered by the crashing sound of uprooted trees, and something large and heavy approaching the village from the direction of the woods.

"What the hell IS that?" Another soldier pointed with a trembling finger at the large, hulking beast that was now visibly charging towards their direction.

The soldiers opened fire. The creature flinched as the bullets sang past, some biting into its thick hide. But that did not stop it charging right into the leader of the soldiers, sending him flying into the air.

"It's that damn monster thing from before!" one of the veteran soldiers announced on recognising the Abominable Snowman. "Captain Dalton beat it before, which means we can too! Keep shooting it!"

The creature positioned itself protectively over the fallen form of its only friend. Then, for the first time since the day it had been orphaned, it spoke.

"Don't you touch Dalton you MONSTERS!"

The voice, animal yet speaking in the human language, left in its wake a ringing silence.

"It spoke. The beast, it spoke!" one of the villagers managed to say at last.

"Not for long!" The leader of the soldiers had clambered back up. There was an ugly gleam in his eye as he took aim at the beast with his recovered rifle. "You'll be a pelt yet, monster!"

Then his eyes widened and he fell forward in a pool of blood. This was followed by the other soldiers around him collapsing as well.

A few paces away stood the scarf-wearing swordsman from before. "No killing the wildlife," he said sternly. "No killing the man I came all the way here to see, either!"

"This is not your war, Outsider!" one of the surviving the soldiers warned.

"Should have thought about that before you shot at me, shouldn't you? Now I'm mad, and in the mood to kick your asses. Not meaning to step on your toes of course," the swordsman added, shooting the villagers a look. "There's plenty of them to go around."

Wright the Shipwright caught his eye, and was suddenly filled with a burning shame. "How can we all be such cowards? Why are we depending on an outsider to save us while we just stand and do nothing? Even the Abominable Snowman's fighting to save Dalton-san!"

With this the villager charged forward. He was promptly shot and fell to the ground.

At first the soldier who had fired the shot smirked, expecting to see the rest of the villagers cower at the sight of their fallen comrade. But the smile rapidly left his face when he realised that things would not quite happen this way this time.

With fearless abandon, the rest of the villagers followed Wright's example. They were still charging forward, weapons raised, unheeding of the losses in their ranks as the spooked soldiers hastily opened fire. The soldiers realized too late that while they had the advantage of superior firepower and training, the villagers had the overwhelming advantage of numbers and one very deadly swordsman.

There was no hope of taking all of them out before they closed the distance. Like a swarm of angry ants, the suicidal charge broke into the ranks of Wapol's men and drove their formation into disarray. What the villagers lacked in combat skill they made up for in sheer fury. It was as though years of pent-up anger and resentment had finally broken loose in that one instant, and the smug soldiers quickly found themselves on the defensive.

"What the hell happened?"

"Why aren't those villagers scared of us anymore?"

"And why aren't their numbers lessening?"

The last was a very good question. It was quickly answered with a glance in the direction of the Ishii-20. The soldiers who had been put in charge of watching the medics had been distracted by the villagers' charge and were all out cold on the floor.

"Sedative!" said one of the doctors, waving his needle around proudly.

The other doctors were busy tending to nearby villagers. The renowned skills of the famed doctors were not to be taken lightly, and downed villagers who had been treated soon found themselves well enough to fight and rejoined the fray.

"Retreat! Retreat! We have to find Wapol-sama! Only he can teach these rabble a lesson!"

It was a bitter pill to swallow, but obediently, the soldiers began their retreat in the direction of the castle. This rapidly degenerated into a rout as the Abominable Snowman, no longer the focus of the soldiers' gunfire, rose to its feet and promptly went berserk again.

This was too much for the soldiers, and they were soon sent running into the woods for their lives.

"Watch them run!"

"And don't come back!"

"We did it! We beat them!"

But the triumphant cheers of the villagers were quickly muted by a single, heart-broken cry:

"Dalton!" Now that the danger was gone, the Abominable Snowman was pawing at Dalton's fallen form, trembling. "They're gone now. Please wake up."

A chill settled on the jubilant company. Sometime during their fight, Dalton had stopped breathing.

* * *

"Cold..." Luffy gasped as he stumbled through the thick snow. Behind him he could hear Wapol and company, still in hot pursuit. He turned around to taunt, ducked in case an arrow was coming his way, then rounded a corner and skidded to a stop. That had turned out to be a bad idea: in front of him was the edge of the cliff.

"Not so cocky, are you now, boy?" Wapol was slightly out of breath, but he had a jubilant glint in his eye. The grounds had been his home after all, and he evidently knew about the geographical advantages and disadvantages. "You have nowhere to run now!"

The despot was right; there was no longer anywhere else to go, or anywhere to run. Luffy's tactics had bought him time, but now that he was cornered, it was time to pay up.

The young pirate captain whirled around to face his pursuers. With some alarm he noted that there were only two: Wapol and the man with the afro. The guy with the funny hat and painful arrows was nowhere to be seen.

No time to wonder where he had gone. It was two against one- while this meant that the odds did favour him in comparison to before, he was still at a disadvantage.

The fight was ugly. Under normal circumstances, Luffy would have been able to give Wapol more of a fight, but the strain of the last desperate week had taken its toll on the already-weakened boy. It was not long before he found himself on the ground, having been knocked back by a barely dodged explosion from Wapol's arm-cannon.

"Finish him off, Kuromarimo! "

The obedient minion smiled in glee. "with pleasure, Your Majesty!"

As Luffy scrambled to get up, to keep fighting— _anything_ to keep the two preoccupied and not killing him or Bonney, the taunting voice of Mr. 0 replayed in his mind.

_"You have determination and guts, and it might have been enough to carry you through in the East Blue, but out here in the Grand Line, it's nowhere near enough!"_

Despite himself, Luffy scowled. That damned Skanky Pants. The last thing he needed right now was be reminded of how the jerk had taunted him while somehow managing to take on three of them all by himself.

But in the end, it was that line of thought that showed Luffy the way, because that was also how he understood the method Mr. 0 had used to defeat him so quickly.

He glanced at the cliff edge. At this height, tossing Wapol off would be every bit as effective as throwing him overboard from a ship. It would definitely give Dr. Tra... Tora-Trufflelalo a lot more time to save Bonney. The only hard part was making it happen.

Kuromarimo bought his mace down hard. Thinking quickly, Luffy reached out and with both hands, grasped each of his executioner's widely spaced out legs. Using them as traction points, the rubber boy made good use of his elasticity and sling-shotted himself out of harm's way.

Kuromarimo's mace thudded harmlessly into the snowy ground. Luffy, on the hand, hurtled across the ground and slammed hard into Wapol.

"Why you slippery...!" swore Kuromarimo, who did not appreciate being made to look incompetent in front of his king. "Stop making a fool out of me!"

Unfortunately for Kuromarimo, he said this just as Luffy, who had bounced off Wapol's massive bulk, barreled back in the man's direction. He had just enough time to widen his eyes before Luffy collided into him and knocked them both over the edge.

* * *

Chess had been smart. Instead of mindlessly chasing that irritatingly fleet rubber-boy, he had hit on the bright idea of entering the castle and using it as a vantage point to shoot at the coward instead. It had been set up quite nicely anyway. Wapol-sama had already eaten a large enough hole into the door for Chess to get through and make his way towards the parapets.

Chess was by no means unobservant. As he made his way through the corridors, he quickly realized the castle had been inhabited by Someone during their absence.

It wasn't until he was running past one of the many rooms when he decided to stop, however.

The reason? A flickering stream of blue light streaming from the gap beneath one of the closed doors had caught his attention. Someone was in there, and up to Something.

Some new devilry was afoot in the castle, and Chess promptly decided that it was his duty to investigate.

The doorjamb rattled uselessly when he tried to open the door. It was locked, of course.

"Hey you, in there! You're trespassing! Open up, or you'll make things worse for yourself when I get in there!"

The stream of blue light flickered and dimmed for a moment. Then it resumed. There was no acknowledgement from whoever it was on the other side.

Chess made up his mind quickly— Wapol and Kuro didn't really need his help- they were strong and would have no trouble taking care of a single measly boy. There was clearly Someone on the other side of that door and he was going to pay for his audacity. He drew his bow and took aim at the door. This door was a flimsier affair compared to the front door, and it would only take a few careful shots at the hinges to bring it down.

* * *

Dr. Trafalgar Law knew that he had run out of time. If Wapol's men had made it this far into the castle, the rubber boy must have been defeated. The surgeon had expected as much; the boy had looked quite done in. It was a miracle he had even lasted this long, actually.

The door began shuddering as whoever it was on the other side started trying to break it down. The doctor hesitated for the briefest of moments, but did not reach for his sword and kept his hands working away at his patient.

He wasn't sure why he was endangering himself this much for a pirate, really. Perhaps it was his surgeon's perfectionism kicking in. They were already at the most crucial stage of his operation. If he didn't keep his focus on his ongoing surgery, the girl would be dead anyway and he might as well have not started operating at all. Leaving a job done in a half-assed manner always did irk him immensely.

Behind him, the sound of splintering wood threatened his concentration again.

That door might just hold long enough to complete the tricky part, but after that... unless he had a plan, being caught in the middle of an operation was going to put him at the mercy of that intruder.

* * *

Wapol was left to stare at the lonely edge in astonishment. Then what had just happened sunk in.

"You useless Kuromarimo! "the despot spat at no one in particular, showing little regard for his lost subordinate. "Good riddance!"

Then he heard, faint upon the wind, a shrill yodel. He leaned over the edge of the cliff and looked down over the drop, but the swirling clouds beneath obscured the view.

The sound was getting louder and louder.

Wapol leaned forward a little bit more, and was promptly hit in the face by the rough equivalent of a rubber canon-ball which had been in the process of flying— no, bouncing back up. He had already been in a precarious position when leaning over the edge. The impact knocked the despot off-balance completely, and he fell, unfortunately in the wrong direction.

As he hurtled down the fightening drop, he was vaguely aware that someone else was falling along with him. It was the boy. Somewhere in the back of his panicked mind Wapol vaguely remembered that the boy had already fallen down that way once before, and was somehow still alive if his screams were anything to go by.

But as they neared the bottom, any hope he had of surviving his fall faded. At the bottom of the cliff there was only hard rock, and amongst them, the broken body of Kuromarimo.

It was only then when Wapol understood how the rubber boy had survived and gone bouncing all the way back up. Just before he hit the ground, the former monarch of Drum found himself wishing that the Baku-Baku devil fruit he had eaten had been a rubber paramecia instead.

* * *

The much-abused door groaned for the last time before giving way and crashing down. Chess drew a bead at the lone occupant of the room-a doctor who was operating on a patient and ignoring him completely.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Chess demanded.

"You are interrupting my operation, Mr. Jester," the surgeon said calmly, still concentrating on his work. "Please wait for a moment and I will attend to you."

Chess took a few steps into the room. He was used to dealing with doctors, but this one was out of the ordinary. Unlike the old geezers of the Ishii-20, he seemed to be operating solely using some sort of strange power. It emitted a blue light film that encompassed a small sphere inside the room.

"You have an interesting devil's fruit power, Doctor. It might even save your life." Chess took another step closer, still keeping his aim on the doctor. In doing so, he stepped over the threshold of the blue light sphere. It gave off a strange prickly feel when he entered it. "You see, all non-royal doctors were outlawed on Drum Island by the order of King Wapol. Normally we just kill them, but I might keep you alive for now and let His Majesty decide if you'll be of any use to him..."

Chess trailed off as he realized the doctor was still working away at his operation and was paying Chess' threatening speech no attention.

"Hey! How dare you ignore me? Don't you know the peril you are in?"

The doctor kept operating. Insulted, Chess decided that this really was the last straw and fired a warning shot. The arrow flew past the surgeon's ear, and embedded itself into the wall behind him. Impressively, the man did not flinch. But he did stop operating for the moment.

"Finally, you got the message," said Chess, smirking. "Now drop what you're doing, and come with me."

The doctor looked up, scowling. "Don't order me around, Mr. Jester."

Chess rolled his eyes at readied another arrow. "On second thought, you're not worth saving for King Wapol. You really must be the dumbest doctor I've ever met! l think I'll just kill you here and now."

The doctor quickly stopped operating and raised his hands in a gesture Chess took to mean as surrender. The blue light in the room faded. Chess was about to gloat about finally cowing the defiant doctor into submission when he suddenly became aware that he could not move. The arrow slipped and fell from his numbed fingers.

"If your nerves feel like cotton, Mr. Jester, that is because I replaced them with the cotton swabs over there," the doctor said smiling sinisterly and motioning at his tray of operating equipment. Chess felt a stab of fear as the doctor reached for a needle and began stitching away at his patient.

"Oh don't worry, the process blocks your pain receptors as well so you shouldn't feel a thing. As I told you before, do wait and_ l will attend to you in a moment._"

* * *

Despite their unexpected victory over Wapol, the villagers of Bighorn were not celebrating. Their beloved leader lay before them on blood-stained snow, and kneeling over his unmoving body, was the Abominable Snowman, weeping in grief.

"Dalton! Please wake up! I'll be good! I'll stop being wild and come live in the village. I'll..." the creature choked back a sob. " Please don't leave like Dr. Hiruluk and Doctorine. l don't want to be alone again!"

"Oi," said the swordsman to the assembled Ishii-20. His eyes were suspiciously wet-looking. "Aren't you lot doctors? Can't you do anything?"

"There might be a chance, but the Creature is clearly agitated. For us to get close would be dangerous!"

"Can't you ask it to move?"

"Ask the Creature to move...?"

"Hey Mr. Yeti! Can you move aside a bit? The doctors here are gonna try save Dalton-san."

The creature looked up, surprised at being addressed like a human. But it also nodded and moved aside.

"There you go!" said the swordsman. "Can you save him now?"

The head doctor rolled up his sleeves. "We are the Ishii-20 of Drum," he said simply, and got to work.

* * *

"Hey, Straw-Hat, are you alive?" The Doctor prodded the limp form of the rubber boy with a booted toe. Under any other circumstances he would have assumed the boy was dead after falling all the way to the rocky ground at the base of the Drum Rockies, if not for the fact said boy was snoring very loudly.

Straw-Hat Luffy twitched and mumbled something incomprehensible.

"So you did survive the fall. Clever use of your rubber fruit, dragging them down with you like that. Did you know that your powers would give you immunity?"

The boy rolled over and attempted to go back to sleep. "Sleeping. G'way, Makino!"

"Do you want to know if that girl of yours is alive or not, Straw-Hat?" snapped the Doctor, his indulgent mood wearing off.

The boy sat up in shock, as if suddenly remembering where he was and what had happened. He immediately spotted the bundle swathed in blankets behind him.

"Bonney!".

"By the way, you missed one, Straw-Hat," the Doctor said disapprovingly as Luffy scrambled to the girl's side, his fatigue forgotten. "That jester interrupted me in the middle of my operation. Fortunately I'd finished the procedure in time, else— _Straw-Hat what the hell are you doing?!_"

Luffy turned, his eyes wide and innocent. His hands were still resting on Bonney's shoulders.

"I just wanted to ask Bonney if she was OK!"

"By shaking her awake?"

"But if she's awake that means she's better right?"

Dr. Law stared at him in disbelief. Then he took a deep breath and yanked Luffy clear of his patient.

"Don't touch her again. She's just had surgery and needs to be handled with care. Now sit down and eat this." On saying this, he took a food bar out of his pocket and stuffed it into the boy's mouth, cutting off any possible protests.

Luffy bit into the bar and swallowed it whole. "Hey, this is good! It's not meat, but it's yummy!"

"It's an high-calorie rations bar. Used to treat malnutrition." The Doctor informed him, carefully examining his patient. The girl was still out, but her pulse was steady and she seemed stable despite Straw-Hat's manhandling. He had had qualms about moving her so soon after surgery, but with the castle no longer secure, bringing her along seemed like the best thing to do.

He then turned and looked into the distance, over the tops of the snow-dusted fir trees. The red firey glow reflected off the grey clouds and the dark column of smoke that accompanied it did not bode well for Bighorn Village.

"Hey Straw-Hat, we'd better get moving. Looks like the village is in trouble. Your other wounded friends are still there, aren't they?"

"Bird-ossan and the bounty hunter guy? Yeah! You're gonna go treat them too? You're such a great guy, Dr. Trafangle!" This was followed by a happy bear hug which the doctor, who happened to have his hands occupied with his patient, entirely failed to avold.

"As I told you before, call me Doctor, or Dr. Law," the Doctor said, tensing up before peeling the rubber-boy off himself.

"Okay, Dr. Lol!" Straw-Hat flashed him a dazzling grin.

The Doctor winced at the mangling of his name but decided it was close enough and he couldn't be bothered to correct the boy yet again. As they made their way to the village, with the rubber-boy bouncing happily ahead, (apparently rejuvenated by his consumption of the food bar) the Doctor reminded himself that this was an opportunity to study a rare bird zoan which would make putting up with the hyperactive boy all worthwhile. Besides, a rubber paramecia could be an interesting study.

As they neared the village however, Straw-Hat suddenly stopped short, then stared at something.

"That's Dalton-ossan's house!" he said, pointing at what had been the village leader's modest abode.

Law's gaze followed. It was now a husk of a building, the frame of which was still ablaze.

"Straw-Hat, please don't tell me that the bird zoan and your other friend were in there."

There was no answer forthcoming from the boy, but the smile had gone from his face.

"Well... _damn_," said Law.

* * *

Dalton wandered.

He remembered this place. Mariejois. The splendour of the palatial city had awed him the first time he had come here for the Summit of Kings with the King of Drum. The grand architecture with its sweeping terraces and endless series of columns and promenades had made Drum Castle seem rustic by comparison.

The reigning king then had been Wapol's father, a good man. He knew that the treasure of Drum lay not in material things but the skills of its people, and he didn't care for such ostentatious things and had told Dalton as much. Dalton's respect for the king had only increased with that knowledge.

The second time he had gone to Mariejois had been with Wapol after the old King's passing. Mariejois hadn't felt as grand that time round. He remembered that trip well; the incident with the princess of Alabasta had been perspective-shifting to say the least. Even now, years after it had happened, the impression left by the little princess who had so wisely defused a war-instigating situation stayed in his mind. It had also been the first time he had ever found cause to doubt the suitability of the young King Wapol to rule.

But this place wasn't Mariejois as he remembered it. This version of the place was frozen in some sort of eerie twilight, and utterly deserted.

How had he gotten here? At the back of Dalton's mind there was a pressing feeling of urgency that something was wrong and he'd left something important behind. He kept walking on, regardless.

"Princess..."

Dalton found his feet slowing. He wasn't alone after all. Ahead of him was a hooded figure robed in white. Dalton knew he had seen that man before. That man was one of the Alabastan royal entourage, wasn't he? Yes, one of the Royal Guardians. Why was he here, wandering as aimlessly as Dalton himself, as if desperately seeking something or someone?

"...where are you, Vivi?" the other man called.

A dread chill crept down Dalton's spine. That had been the little girl's name, hadn't it? Had something happened to her?

"What happened?" he found himself asking the other man.

"I've lost her. I promised to protect her. I failed..." At this the man turned, and Dalton saw the man's face for the first time, and his animal senses recognised his scent.

"You!" he gasped in surprise. "You were one of the pirates who came with..."

"...Dalton..."

"...the Straw-Hat boy..."

"...-san!"

The twilight halls of Mariejois faded away, and Dalton came back into the cold world of snow and ice again.

"...Dalton-san?"

He opened his eyes. It took him several moments to realise where he was and what had happened. The sky above him was tinged with amber, the air was heavy with the smell of soot, and his ears were filled with the roar of burning wood. The village was burning. He'd failed, hadn't he? Wapol had returned, defeated him and once again he had been left to lie helpless, listening to the screams of the people—

—actually, they didn't sound like screams. They sounded more like cheers. With some effort Dalton sat up, shaking his head to clear it.

"Dalton!" something screeched shrilly in his ear and attached itself firmly to the side of his head. It was warm and furry, and he could feel it trembling and shedding wet tears.

"I thought you were dead! I thought I was alone again!"

"Ch-chopper?" he tried to say, but his speech was hampered by the tangle of reindeer limbs across his face.

"Hey, Mr. Tanuki, you're strangling Dalton-san. Let go or he'll die," a cool voice spoke, coming to the rescue.

Chopper hurriedly slid off and Dalton could see now he was in what looked like a field hospital that had been set up in the middle of the village square. Through the gap that served as the entrance of the windbreak, he could see the houses that made up Bighorn Village were burning, but he could also see their owners crowded around the opening and around him, still cheering. He also spotted members of the Ishii-20 walking around, treating other villagers. What was going on?

Dalton turned. Next to him was another makeshift bed, and on it was the pirate girl. She was awake, and attending to her was Trafalgar Law, the dark doctor himself.

"Okay, now as you can clearly see, Mr. Dalton is alive. So give him some privacy, will you? He needs rest and needs to be kept quiet right now. Don't you lot have a few fires to put out or something?"

The villagers quickly got the hint and filtered away. Their fear of the dark doctor was still strong.

"—and you, Mr. Tanuki, give Mr. Dalton some space."

"Dr. Law, you can't speak to the Monster like that!", one of the Ishii-20 said at once. "What if it goes berserk?"

"He will not. Also, Chopper is not an 'it', and he is not a monster," Dalton interrupted firmly. "He one of us. One of Drum."

"Ah, if you say so, Dalton-san," the Ishii-20 doctor said placatively. "We are very glad to see you up! You had us worried for a while."

Dalton watched his surroundings in increasing bewilderment. "I don't understand. What happened to Wapol and his army?"

''He got his ass kicked by Luffy," the pirate girl informed him. "That's what the Doc here says, anyway."

"Is this true? The boy defeated the tyrant?"

"In a way, you could say that," the doctor replied, looking thoughtful. "Not very decisively but he walked away while Wapol didn't, so it does count as a victory. I have to say the big surprise was your villagers and the Ishii-20 defeating the army. That, I really wasn't expecting."

"The villagers—!"

"Oh they had help. The furry face-strangler over there apparently pulled a last stand over your almost-corpse. Triggered a revolution, in fact. Even bullets didn't stop him. Still won't let anyone treat him though."

Dalton turned to look at Chopper, who was attempting to hide behind Bonney's makeshift bed, which also meant most of his body was in full view.

"Chopper, you were hurt?! Why didn't you let them treat you?"

Chopper sniffed. "They were scared of me."

"They were scared of you because they don't know you. No more living out on your own. After this, you're coming to live in the village with me. If you trust me, you must learn to trust them too."

The reindeer sniffed, nodded, and quickly jumped onto the hospital bed to burrow himself into Dalton's bandaged chest. "Okay."

Dalton winced at the contact, but smiled at the little reindeer's happiness, regardless.

"Aw, that's so sweet!" said the pirate girl.

"Yeah, like diabetes," the Doctor commented, rolling his eyes.

The girl looked at him in confusion. "Who's Dai-ya-bitties?"

The doctors from the Ishii-20 however, laughed at this. "Good one!" one of them said, giving Dr. Law a thumbs up sign.

"So where is the boy now?" Dalton asked as he petted Chopper, who had finally consented to be examined by the gathered doctors. "Is he all right? Is everyone else safe?"

At this, all gathered suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Most of the villagers were out of their homes before Wapol's army set fire to them, but Dalton-san, your house was burned to the ground. We couldn't stop it, sorry."

"The two wounded men who were in there, don't tell me they—?"

The pirate girl looked disturbed at this. "No sign of them. Luffy was pretty upset about that. He and the swordsman guy went to look in case they managed to escape the fire."

_"Swordsman?"_

* * *

"So, those two were your friends, huh?"

The boy picked through the smouldering rubble forlornly. He didn't seem eager to talk to the yellow-scarfed swordsman.

"When the whole ruckus started I went out to investigate. If I'd known what was going on, maybe I wouldn't have left them there. Sorry about that. But hell, my friend was in there too. Oh I'm not worried about him." The swordsman had caught the boy's expression. "He's not the type to get done in by just a fire. It's just I have no idea where he's run off to now— what's that commotion going on over there?"

"It's another Abominable Snowman!" came a cry from a villager who was running frantically towards them. The two watched the terrified man run past, then turned towards the direction he had come from. Sure enough, they saw a large, hulking shape moving towards them, trudging a path through the ash-blackened snow.

As it came closer the two searchers soon realised that the shape was not a monster as they first thought, but rather, one man carrying two more. To be specific, it was a man in a black coat who was carrying an unconscious Mr. 8 and Mr. 6, one slung over each shoulder.

"There you are!" The swordsman called out on recognising his companion. "What the blazes have you been up to?"

"It wasn't me, Thatch, I swear!" said his companion. "I dozed off while waiting for you guys to come back and when I woke up the whole place was on fire! I had to grab these two and rush out of the cottage and after that I kinda got lost and fell asleep again for a bit and couldn't find my way back."

Thatch rolled his eyes and sighed. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Bird-ossan! Bounty hunter guy!" The rubber boy, on recognising his surviving companions and finding them safe, was shocked out of his silence.

At the sound of his voice, Thatch's companion nearly dropped the two men he was carrying.

_"Luffy?"_

The next moment, Thatch was nearly deafened as Luffy, who unfortunately happened to be hovering right next to Thatch's ear, was overcome with delight and bellowed out his companion's name:

_"ACE!"_

* * *

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

_**A/N: Well this took a long time. Sorry to keep you guys waiting, but I did want to finish my other fic Marie D Suesse and the Mystery New Pirate Age! First. As those of you who also follow that story (especially the Trafalgar Law fans) will know, I managed to finish it over Christmas, so that means we're back on schedule again. I had to do some rewriting of this chapter thanks to canon developments to keep people in character though. I'm sure you guys will recognise the parts.**_

_**On the bright side, check out the awesome SN11 fanart I got from Mikan/Mauriko! (link in my profile, just scrolle down to the Supernova Eleven art section)**_

_**I'm without a beta for this fic now, so you'll have to forgive me for any errors. All that said, if you see them, please point them out so I can fix it. I don't really feel like doing a long Q and A this round. I'm short of time and I have a feeling you guys would prefer me writing you new chapters rather than answering reviews. -|P**_

* * *

_**Q and A:**_

* * *

_**Lily Noir 12/3/12 . chapter 6**_

Tho, theres one thing that kind piques me. I know that since Luffy has a stronger crew, he wouldn't develop like in the canon storyline, but the definition of Luffy (in my opinion) is strong (and not only in brute force, but in the very way he is able to overcome everything with his sheer will). It' kinda doesn't sit well with me to have him weaker than he is at that timeframe in the manga. I know it's AU's license and all, but the captain IS usually the strongest one in the crew (or a superb strategist to make up for brute strength - but we all know Lu will neve be a strategist), and, even if they are the supernovas, I would really like to see the difference, the reason why HE is the captain, why the should respect him.

_**Sevenar 11/26/12 . chapter 6**_

How are you going to make Luffy strong enough for the islands ahead? Since most of this story has him dealing with very few enemies. Hawkeye took Krieg, Smoker got Arlong, Gin beat Kuro...so far the only major people he's fought like in canon is Buggy and Alvida. Everyone else who's going to be part of his crew are a lot stronger then him it seems. Not to mention I doubt they'll be particularly loyal to him since in canon he either saved his prospective crew members or protected something precious to them. I like this story but I would like to see more of Luffy having a larger role.

_**-|P: **Several people have been asking about Weaker!Luffy, so I'd just like to mention again that yes, the dynamics of the crew are going to be very very different. This isn't going to be a chain of Luffy saves X on their personal quest and then X joins the crew. Not that I didn't like it in canon, but I never saw that point of doing and AU and have it turn out almost like canon except with different characters. It's much more fun to explore different reasons and dynamics._

_Why is Luffy captain then? I do have that planned out but hey, no spoiling my own story._

* * *

_**Endless Strategy Games 10/29/12 . chapter 6**_

I don't see why Law can't go outside for 5 minutes and chop the losers up with Luffy, but as long as Luffy wins I don't really care.

**-|P: **_I'm really going to have my work cut out to not have Law overshadow everyone else in this story. So um yeah, keep in mind this is Law before Sabaody. And just like Luffy, he is not as insanely powerful as he turned out to be later._

* * *

_**And that's it for this chapter. Thank you for all the reviews and favs and follows, I do appreciate them and I'm glad you guys are enjoying this.**_


	8. The Wronged and the Wandering

_**A/N: This chapter is best read with pre-knowledge of the Drum Island, Alabasta and Ohara Arcs in canon.**_

The Supernova Eleven

**Chapter 8: The Wronged and the Wandering**

* * *

"Luffy, do you mean to say that your brother is Fire-Fist Ace? As in the same Fire-Fist who battled the Shichibukai Jinbe to a draw? And you've never even bothered to mention it to me even _once_?"

Luffy, who was busy stuffing his face full of food the happy villagers had put out to celebrate the fall of Wapol, looked at Bonney as though he couldn't understand what the fuss was all about.

"Ace? Yeah, he and I grew up together back in the East Blue." It was at this point when he realised everyone was staring at him.

"Are you okay, Bonney? You're not eating your food."

"Don't change the topic Straw-Hat," Dr Law spoke up. "I have to admit I'm curious too. How did someone like yourself turn out to be related to someone infamous like the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division commander?"

"Who's Whitebeard?"

Everyone stared at Luffy again, then burst into hapless laughter.

"Very funny guy, your brother. He had us for a moment there," said Thatch, between gasps for breath.

But there were two people who weren't laughing. One was Bonney. The other was Ace, who got up, smiled and turned to address everyone.

"Excuse my stealing Luffy off for a while, everyone. My brother and I haven't seen each other for years. I'd like to take the chance to catch up." Saying this, he walked over and dragged Luffy off to a quiet corner. Once he was sure that no one was watching, he whirled around and bopped his brother on the head.

"Ow! What was that for, Ace?"

"Luffy, _what do you think you're doing_?"

"What do you mean? We're doing what we said we would, sailing the Grand Line and looking for One Piece!"

"Well, you're in the Grand Line and looking for One Piece all right, but you've got to stop being so carefree and start paying more attention to important things. I mean look what happened here! You're barely in the Grand Line and three of your crew are already badly hurt and you yourself got pretty beat up too."

"Eh? But Bird-ossan and Bounty Hunter guy aren't members of my crew, only Bonney is."

There was a momentary, stunned silence. "You sailed into the Grand Line with only one other crew member?!" Ace bopped Luffy on the head again for good measure. "You really are an idiotic brother! You can't just do that Luffy! You're only going to get yourself and that girl killed sooner or later!"

"Oh don't worry. Bonney's strong!"

"She's still just one person! Just because someone's really strong doesn't mean they won't get killed!" Ace had raised his voice, much to Luffy's surprise. It was not that Ace never yelled at him, but there was something odd in his tone. Perhaps that was why Luffy didn't argue, but quietly nodded and said:

"Okay. I'm gonna get a doctor from this place to join my crew before I leave."

Ace calmed down a little. "Good idea. If you hadn't said that I would have dragged you off and forced you into joining my crew."

"But I don't want to join your crew!"

Ace grinned. "Who says I'm giving you a choice in the matter, Little Brother?"

* * *

Ace and Luffy rejoined the party to find Dr Law in deep conversation with Thatch.

"... so I have to wonder, Mr. Thatch, what are two high-ranking members of Whitebeard's crew like yourself and Fire-Fist doing in this part of the Grand Line?"

"Oh we don't normally hang here," admitted Thatch. "But we're after someone and he decided to travel this way, so here we are."

Dr Law hmm 'ed contemplatively for a moment, then he looked up and asked casually: "Blackbeard the Pirate?"

"Blackbeard," Thatch confirmed, nodding approvingly. "You're a sharp one, doctor."

"He made quite a mess of Drum Country shortly before I got here. I saw the aftermath. Was that why you are after him?"

Thatch hesitated. Before he could answer, Ace cut in.

"I could lie and say that was the case, but it's not wholly true. Teach— he calls himself Blackbeard now, used to be a member of the Whitebeard Pirates." Ace's face darkened in anger. "I was his division commander, and I'm here because it's my responsibility to hunt him down for what he did before he deserted."

"What did he do?" Dr Law asked curiously.

It was Thatch who answered the question this time. "Teach committed an unforgivable crime- the most unforgivable crime a Whitebeard Pirate could ever commit." Thatch took a deep breathe to compose himself before continuing gravely: "He murdered one of his own crewmates."

* * *

Dalton was content. The villagers of Bighorn had relocated to Gyasta for time being, and the small town hall there had been converted into a hospital for the Ishii-20 to use. The wounded from the battle of Bighorn had been moved there too, and thanks to the presence of the famed doctors there had been no deaths other than that of Wapol and his men.

Wright the Shipwright and several others had been wounded, but they would live to see the new Drum, one without the shadow of Wapol hanging over it for many years to come.

His animal senses could hear the sounds of laughter and merriment from the party outside. Even though he himself was not part of the festivities the sound was more than enough to make him smile. It had been so long since the people had laughed that way.

"We lost a village, but we gained a country," he said to no one in particular.

Chopper, curled up into a warm ball of fur at the end of his bed, suddenly unfurled himself and looked towards the ward next to them. Dalton nodded at the little reindeer's enquiring gaze.

"Yes, I sense it too."

There was the sound of rustling bedsheets and then a low groan. One of the Ishii-20 evidently heard the sound too, and there was the sound of footsteps and the flapping of the curtain divider.

"Ah, you're awake. Please, you must take it easy."

"Where am I? What is this place? This is not Whiskey Peak..."

"You are in Gyasta and— _Hey_! Please stop! You shouldn't even be out of bed in your condition!"

"My condition is of no consequence. Where am I? There is someone I must find!"

Dalton decided it was time he intervened. Chopper looked at him with concern as he got to his feet and limped toward the next ward. There he found the doctor pleading with the dark-haired man who had come to Drum with the rubber pirate boy. It was the same man as the one from his dream.

He couldn't remember the name, but he remembered the animal he had sensed.

"You are the Guardian Falcon of Alabasta, aren't you?"

The man turned and stared at him in astonishment. "How did you know...?" he trailed off, as if trying to recall a distant memory. "I have seen you before from somewhere, haven't I? Where?"

"The World Summit in Mariejois. I was part of the Drum entourage."

"Yes. I remember now. That kingdom with the prince who hit Vi—" The other man stopped himself from finishing the sentence, realising it would have been quite rude.

Dalton wasn't offended, however. He himself knew the disdain was deserved, and he himself had apologized to the little girl on his king's behalf, after all. Besides, there were more pressing matters now that Wapol was dead.

"How did you come from being a royal guardian to being amongst the crew of a pirate? What has happened to Alabasta?"

He could feel the other man's wariness. Whatever had happened to him, it was something highly sensitive. But if the Falcon was hoping for secrecy, that hope was promptly killed by the arrival of his companion, the other wounded pirate, who seemed to have regained consciousness as well.

"Eight! Where are we? Where's Vivi?"

"I do not know. The last thing I remember was Whiskey Peak, and now we are here in... Drum?" 'Eight' said, shooting Dalton a questioning look at the last bit.

"The former Kingdom of Drum," Dalton corrected. "This is the village of Gyasta, which holds an ice-skating festival every year at the first frost."

The most obvious question came next. "How did we get here?"

"Perhaps you should ask the one who brought you here," Dalton replied, gesturing at the partying figures outside the field hospital. His timing was impeccable, as Straw-Hat Luffy chose that very moment to burst in the door, saying something that sounded very much like:

"Join my crew!"

This turned out to be directed at Dr Law, who had been on his way to check on his patients.

"As I told you, Straw-Hat, I have too much to do, and important research to take care of," the doctor told the boy with some asperity. Then he noticed the congregation of people in the ward. "What are you all doing out of bed? You, you need the dressing on your burns changed—"

"Oh, I have taken care of that, Dr Law, " said the doctor from the Ishii-20 at once. "We've also seen to the other one and all the gunshot wound victims too. They're all good for the night, so feel free to continue with the festivities."

"I see." Despite the other doctor's eagerness to please, Dr Law didn't seem thrilled at the prospect of having some leisure time. "I should get back to my research on Kestia mutations then."

"Did you say 'Kestia'?" another Ishii-20 doctor asked, perking up. "Ancient diseases are my speciality! I have studied everything you'd possibly want to know about Kestia. I'd be more than happy to share my knowledge with you as thanks for taking care of the people in our absence. You know what? I'll just give you a copy of my entire paper. It's the definitive word on the subject and it will save you oodles of research time!"

"I don't..." began Dr Law, who looked rather taken aback and strangely enough, a little unhappy.

"We'll give you copies of our research as well!" chimed in the other doctors, not to be outdone. "Don't worry Dr Law. We truly wish for you to have it!"

Luffy pouted as Dr Law was duly mobbed by the mass of doctors, depriving him of his potential recruit. It was while this was going on when he finally realised that the other two wounded from his group were conscious and apparently well enough to stand.

"Bird-Ossan! Bounty Hunter guy! You're okay! " he said beaming, his good mood restored.

Eight did not seem as happy however. "Boy, where is the Princess? Why are we at Drum? Did you escort her to Alabasta as promised?"

Luffy suddenly looked serious. "This Skanky-Pants guy and Creepy-Hands woman attacked us. He took Vivi-"

"WHAT?!" The former guardian had turned pale at the mention of the two attackers. At the mention that the girl had been taken, he looked as though he was about to murder someone. "You _let_ them take her?!"

"No! But that stupid Skanky-Pants, he hurt Bonney and I couldn't beat him. Then Vivi said she wasn't important anymore and went with him but said we had to bring this paper thing for her to Aboobama—"

"—_Alubarna_. What was this thing she asked you to bring? "

"Bonney knows where it is."

* * *

"So this thing is a dispatch to be sent to your King?" Six asked curiously as Eight pored over the scroll Vivi had passed to Bonney. The crew and passengers of the Going Merry had moved to a private corner of the hospital to discuss the state of things. "It had better be damned important for her to trade herself to Zero for."

Eight nodded. "Unfortunately it is. She is right, this must get to the King as soon as possible. The lives of many depend on it. But still, Vivi is now in Zero's hands..." He gritted his teeth as he said this, the pain of his failure clearly weighing on him.

"Vivi's tough," Six pointed out. "She won't let herself be killed so easily and she can take whatever Zero throws at her. Besides, she's some princess or something, isn't she?"

"You are right. They will not kill her. She would be more valuable as a hostage to Zero for now. " Eight did not look any less disturbed at the thought.

''Don't worry, Bird Ossan!" Luffy declared, I'm not going to let him get away with it. I'm going to find Skanky-Pants and rescue her!"

Six fingered his katana. ''Boss Zero still owes me a duel," he said, scowling. "If you're going after him, just remember that I got dibs on him first."

"No way! I've decided! I'm going to be the one who beats him!"

"Go find your own opponent! I challenged him first!"

"You selfish jerk! Share!"

The argument was promptly resolved by Bonney, who turned both Six and Luffy into babies, much to Eight astonishment.

"You two, knock it off. This is serious; we need to decide what to do!" she scolded once she had turned them back. "Hey Mr Mayor-Eight-Falcon, what do we do now? Your princess wanted us to deliver that thing, but now that you're here I guess things are different. Do we go after that jerk Mr Zero and rescue her, or do we still follow her orders and go to Alubarna?"

"My every instinct tells me to go after Vivi, but I know deep down that this is not what she would have me do if she were to have a say in the matter." Eight appeared to be steeling himself for something. But with great difficulty, he dutifully resigned himself to what was required of him.

"My priorities are clear. This scroll must get to the king, and I am the one best suited to deliver it. I am capable of flight, and my face is a familiar one to the palace. It will make a great difference in whether the contents of this scroll will be believed or not."

"But what about Vivi? You can't just abandon her!" Bonney looked horrified at Eight's perceived callousness.

"You are correct. I cannot." The man proceeded to surprise everyone present by unexpectedly dropping to his knees and bowing to the ground. "That is why I must make a very dangerous request of you all: Please, go for her in my stead."

Six looked at the kneeling man in slight disappointment. "I hadn't figured you for the type to lower yourself so easily, Eight."

The man he had addressed did not look the slightest bit ashamed. "Mr Eight was a facade. I used him to infiltrate Baroque Works, and he exists no longer. Now, I am Pell, formerly the Guardian Falcon of Alabasta. I have sworn to protect Princess Vivi with my life, and I will do whatever is required of me if it helps her." He turned to Bonney and Luffy again.

"I beg you: do all you can to save her. Name your price, and I will do all in my power to ensure it is met. "

"Aw, don't worry about it, Bird-Ossan! We promised to get Vivi home, but since we didn't get to do it, we'll make sure we get her this time!" Luffy said cheerfully, much to Bonney's consternation. But oddly enough, she did not complain too much.

"Here we go again. Do at least think over these things before you agree, Captain," she grumbled.

* * *

"No," Dr Law said flatly.

"But—"

"Out of the question. You two are recovering from serious burns that will take several days to heal," the doctor stressed. "And that girl," — he pointed at Bonney as he said this — "is recovering from surgery, and will need at least a week of rest before I'll discharge her. I did not bring you all back from the verge of death just so you can go off and die before I am done with you. My reputation as a doctor would be ruined."

"I have a mission that must be carried out at all costs—" Pell began arguing.

"I don't care, Mr Bird zoan! " Dr Law retorted, unintimidated. "I am the doctor here and I call the shots. You have no one with any sort of medical knowledge on your ship, so I can't transfer the responsibility for your care to them. You're staying on Drum until I deem you all fit to be released."

"Dr Law is right. I'm afraid it would be terribly unwise to leave without a medic on board your ship," the doctor from the Ishii-20 said. "There's bound to be medical complications in the future and you might not be fortunate enough to have timely access to a doctor when that happens."

"People will die if we tarry here!" Pell protested angrily.

"Well, technically the problem would have been solved if your Captain had the foresight to ensure he had a medic in your crew," Dr Law pointed out. "Which was something he should have done in the first place."

"Shishishi, you're such a great guy, Dr Traffic Law! Sure!"

"Sure what?"

"You don't have to be shy! You can change your mind anytime. Just join my crew!"

"For the last time, Straw-Hat! I am not joining your crew! I am not going anywhere! I have no intention of leaving! Can't you get that through that thick head of yours?"

"No. I've decided! You're going to be my doctor!"

"No one orders me around, Straw-Hat."

Pell attempted to negotiate instead.

"What would it take to get you to come along with us?"

"An opportunity to perform a dissection on a zoan," Dr Law responded glibly. "Are you offering?" he added as the other man stiffened at the implied threat.

"I think he was kidding," Bonney said hastily. No one quite believed her. No one also paid her any further attention when Luffy said:

"Okay! But only if Bird-Ossan says it's okay too. "

"What the hell, Luffy?! You can't just decide things like that!" Bonney wanted very badly to bang her head against the wall.

Pell surprised everyone by holding up a hand. "We can compromise. I am in agreement with this bargain on the condition this only occurs after my death, which will not be caused by the doctor on purpose."

There was a stunned silence, then Six whistled. "You really are desperate, Eight."

Luffy however, appeared to take it as the conclusion to the negotiations. "See? So it's settled! You're joining my crew! "

Dr Law stared at the boy and the falcon zoan in disbelief. "I was being sarcastic," he said once he got over the surprise at their ready acceptance of his offer. "Can't you even tell? I have no intentions of joining your crazy crew."

"That was what they said when he decided I was going to be part of his crew," Bonney commented wryly. "Look where I am now."

Dr Law shot her a black look at this. Then without saying a word, he turned on his heel and left in a huff.

"So was that a Yes or No?"

* * *

"Are you really going to drag your brother along with us if he doesn't manage to get as doctor to come along with him?" Thatch asked Ace as the two of them made their way to the temporary hospital.

They ran into Dr Law, who was on his way out. The doctor, who was visibly ruffled over something, did not even acknowledge them as he headed out.

"It was a 'No', Luffy," a very frazzled Bonney was in the middle of explaining to her captain.

Both Thatch and Ace took in the situation for a moment, then Ace sighed.

"Well, I guess that means your brother is coming with us," Thatch said with a shrug.

* * *

Law heaved a sigh of relief as he returned to the castle after a few hours worth of rambling about the forests around the Drum Rockies.

Peace and quiet at last! That rubber boy was really too much, and as tempting as the zoan's offer was, it wasn't worth leaving Drum Island and its treasure trove of information for.

A shame to pass up the chance at a bird zoan cadaver though, but he was sure he could find something else just as fascinating to study. Yes, he had been in the middle of researching that strain of—

Dr Law pushed open the door of his lab and stopped short. Piled about his sacred inner sanctum of knowledge were stacks of papers and reports. Gifts from the adoring doctors of the Ishii-20, no doubt. When had they found the time to sneak up here and leave their overbearing gifts without him noticing?

He raked his eye over the towering columns and came to the conclusion that there was enough material in there to keep him occupied for _years_. By the time he was finished, he'd probably be the most knowledgeable doctor on this half of the Grand Line. He picked up one of the files and flipped through it. Then he put it down and started leafing through the next before suddenly tossing it aside in irritation.

What the hell was up with him? All the knowledge he'd ever want had just been presented to him on a silver platter and yet he couldn't summon up the interest to go through it. It wasn't as though he had anything better to do.

He was almost relieved when there came the sound of voices from outside the castle. It sounded like the deep one of Dalton-san, and the high-pitched one belonging to the little furry face-strangling reindeer.

"Do you think the Ishii-20 would teach me to be a doctor if I asked them to take me as their student?"

"I am sure they would not refuse the hero of the revolution," was Dalton's amused reply.

"Calling me a hero doesn't make me happy, jerk! But it's going to be an adventure, learning to be a doctor like Dr Hiruluk! Or like Dr—"

The two zoans both stopped short when they saw him. The doctor reflected that the reindeer didn't sound or look unhappy at all, and in fact, was wriggling happily in glee.

"Pardon the intrusion to the castle, Doctor," Dalton said quickly. "One of the men managed to recover the armory key from Wapol's corpse. Recovering the weapons stores would be of great importance to the Island militia's ability to safeguard all our people, especially now that the Ishii-20 are back."

"Aren't you supposed to be recovering in bed?"

"The Ishii-20 allowed some light activity—"

Ah of course. The Ishii-20 again. The inevitable clash of opinions between doctors of differing backgrounds. While Dr Law had no doubt these men were good doctors and more experienced than he was to boot, this was going to be a drag, being contradicted and unintentionally upstaged by a bunch of old geezers. They would probably want to be moving back here into the castle too...

It was then when Dr Law had his epiphany.

He quickly moved to towards the pile of research files, picked out a few that looked interesting, and set them aside. Then he started gathering up the most indispensable of his belongings, tossed Mr Dalton the key to the lab rat's cage, and tipped his hat to the reindeer before making his hasty exit through the half-eaten door.

"Tanuki-ya, I wish you all the best of luck training with the Ishii-20. Mr Dalton, it's been fun, but I think you guys can have your castle back now," he called behind him.

"Dr Law, where are you going?" Dalton's astonished voice carried through from the castle.

Trafalgar Law smirked, then turned to gaze towards the distance. From the summit of the Drum Rockies, the blue expanse of the Grand Line was just visible.

* * *

"It's great that you decided to come with us, Doctor...?"

"Law," Trafalgar Law said slowly and clearly to the girl pirate with the pink hair, whom he hoped was going to be better at names than the thick-headed rubber boy. "Just to make it clear, I am offering your crew my services in exchange for transport to an island of my choosing. I am not joining your crew and nor will I be involved in your crazy agendas—"

"But Traffy, we're going to find One Piece! It'll be a great adventure. You gotta come with us to the New World!"

Law turned and gave Luffy a look. "One Piece? You're after One Piece? I thought you were going to Alabasta to rescue some princess or other!"

Luffy grinned. "We're just doing that on the way, 'cos we promised Vivi and Bird-Ossan! There was this jerk called Skanky-Pants and he captured her but—"

"Fascinating," the doctor interrupted in the most bored voice he could manage.

The sarcasm however, was lost on Luffy, who happily proceeded to talk about kicking the ass of the aforementioned Mr Skanky-Pants. The doctor shook his head and tried to block him out by staring after the wake of the Fire-Fist's little boat ahead. He wondered anew how on earth Fire-Fist Ace could possibly be related to the boy. It just made no genetic sense.

He shrugged. A detour or two wouldn't hurt, he supposed. Anyway, both Fire-Fist and Thatch were coming along to Alabasta as they had heard some rumour of Blackbeard being present there. They at least, had sense and would surely have some influence over the madness that was Straw Hat.

_Just how much trouble could rescuing a girl from some bandits be, really?_

* * *

The room was opulently furnished, and filled with the cloying smell of fine cigar smoke. The figure seated in the chair matched the environment— rich, decadent, but with a harsh coldness beneath it all.

"Ms All Sunday."

Ms All Sunday returned his greeting with a demure smile. "I answered your summons as soon as I could, Mr Benefactor."

"And you are probably wondering why I called for only you and not the both of you."

"I had presumed that your sources already informed you of the incident with the Princess and the need for Zero to be present and handling the situation."

"Oh come on now, you didn't really think that."

Without skipping a beat the woman answered: "Of course, but it was the polite thing to say."

"I have to say, I am surprised that you two allowed infiltrators into your ranks. How did that happen?"

"We may have underestimated the Royal family. It is nothing to worry about. We took care of the spies the moment we caught wind of what they were doing. The situation has been contained, and we have Princess Vivi as our prisoner. I have no doubt we can find a use for her in furthering our plans."

"Good. I don't value stupid subordinates."

"You do however, value the knowledgeable ones."

"Especially the ones with forbidden or classified information that could be of advantage to me. You and Zero have been especially valuable in this regard."

Miss All Sunday said nothing and let her benefactor continue.

"The one thing about information is, that some types become less and less valuable as time goes on, while others retain their value even after twenty years."

"Such is the nature of information." But there was an unease in Ms All Sunday's voice even as she said this.

"I'll get to the point, Nico Robin—" (Ms All Sunday flinched at her benefactor's use of the name), "—when I first found the both of you, the information X Drake had was of considerable value, enough to make extending my protection to you for his sake worthwhile. But times have changed, and the usefulness of Drake's knowledge has waned. It is no longer enough to guarantee the both of you protection under my title. Oh don't panic—" he added, casting her a nasty smile, "I haven't forgotten your years of loyal service. I'm still prepared to reward you with that thing you want the most for it, but you are going to have to go just a bit further."

"What would you wish of us, then?" Ms All Sunday asked cautiously.

"What I would wish of _you_, my dear. Drake has fulfilled his end of being useful. You, on the other hand, have still been holding out on me, scholar of Ohara."

Nico Robin's face had turned white.

"Now, with the welfare of both yourself and Drake in mind, I would like to talk about the Poneglyphs..."

* * *

"So Dr Law was convinced to join that pirate crew by the Straw-Hat boy?" Wright the Shipwright asked as he and Dalton sat by the harbor. It had been two days after the departure of the Straw Hats, and the doctors had allowed Dalton and Wright to be on light lookout duty.

"Well, apparently Straw-Hat wasn't quite the deciding factor. The Ishii-20 was."

Wright chuckled knowingly. "Young fella like the Dark Doctor, didn't like not being the only doctor on the island, did he?"

"Or perhaps he did not care for their adulation," Dalton replied with a smile, "It was a bit excessive. Chopper does not seem to mind them, however. He is thrilled to be able to learn from them. In fact, I think he has expressed ambitions to be the greatest doctor in the kingdom one day."

"I'm sure you'll allow it once you become king. Dalton-san", Wright said with conviction.

"I've already told you, it has not been decided."

"Oh yeah, we have to have elections first, just to make it official," Wright conceded, much to Dalton's annoyance. "You know you are going to win it, Dalton-san. The whole island looks up to you, and after what you did when Wapol's men returned..."

"Chopper did more to free the island than I ever did."

Even as Dalton said it, a thought occurred to him. He would take on the burden of leadership, but only to atone for the sins of his past, and perhaps one day in the future, when the country had become stable, and when the people had gotten over their fear, perhaps it would be a little reindeer who would sit upon the throne in the future.

The thought appealed to Dalton, and brought a smile to his face. It quickly faded as his sharp eyes caught the glimpse of something in the distance.

"Wright, alert the sentries. Something's approaching."

The 'something' turned out to be a fleet of ships, breaking through the fog in perfect formation with complete, eerie silence. Defenders of the former Drum Kingdom stood ready to intercept this time, but one thing became clear as the ships glided into harbour: they were not pirate ships. They were uniformly plain for one, and lacked Jolly Rogers, the symbol of pride of any pirate crew.

When the ships pulled within earshot, Dalton stepped up to issue his customary warning. But before he could begin, a solitary cloaked figure appeared on deck.

A feeling of deja vu washed over Dalton. He continued with his speech, regardless.

"Come no further," he began, then stopped short as the figure broke out into a laugh. There was something very familiar about that laugh, and a name, long dismissed, jumped to mind. But before he could speak again, the cloaked figure looked up and pulled off her hood, letting her long while hair tumble out.

"Good to see you alive, Dalton!"

"Dr Kureha!?"

The villagers stared in amazement, for there was no doubt that person was the one and the same as their missing doctor.

"But you were... after Blackbeard's raid you went missing and everyone thought you were dead!"

''Yeah, it was a bit of a sudden decision. But after Hiruluk's death, and then that useless ruler of ours running off like a coward, I decided enough was enough, so I went to get help from some old friends of mine."

"The arrival of this fleet is your doing?"

"You could say, that. Now, where's Wapol?"

''Wapol is dead," Dalton replied, a little at a loss on how to react.

Dr Kureha gave a low whistle. "Looks like I came too late. You mean that tyrant finally got what was coming to him? Who did it? You? I didn't think you had it in you, Dalton, but then you never know what you'd be capable of until you're desperate enough."

''Perhaps that is a tale for another time, Kureha," a second man had now appeared on deck. "But the men are on standby and we would like to confirm that our plans no longer need to be put into motion?"

"Plan?"

"We came here to start a revolution and overthrow Wapol," the man explained, throwing back his hood as well. Dalton's eyes widened as he recognised the man's face. Those piercing eyes, the facial tattoos.

He had seen that man's picture before, years ago, at the summit of kings in Mariejois. Before him was the most wanted man in the world:

"Dragon the Revolutionary?"

* * *

**To Be Continued...**


End file.
